“The news of Bill and Melinda Gates’s divorce has struck the world of philanthropy as an earthquake”
The news of the separation of Bill and Melinda Gates, at the head of the largest foundation on the planet, raises the question of the control of all-powerful private entities, whether they are lucrative or not, analyzes Sylvie Kauffmann, columnist at " World ”.
Chronic. This is a divorce that will not fuel the celebrity column. Strictly speaking, the chronicle finances, but it is, in reality, in the geopolitical chronicle that it finds its place: the announcement, Monday, May 3, of the separation of Bill and Melinda Gates, after twenty-seven years of marriage, has had the effect of an earthquake in the world of philanthropy, even if both claim to want to continue working together within the foundation they created a little over twenty years ago.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose mission is to "fight poverty, disease and inequality around the world", is quite simply the largest private philanthropic organization in the world. With a fund of some 50 billion dollars (41.6 billion euros), it is the second largest contributor to the budget of the World Health Organization (WHO). In these times of pandemic, it is a crucial link in global crisis exit programs.
Microsoft co-founder and science enthusiast Bill Gates has been warning about the risk of a pandemic for several years. His foundation has extensive experience in immunization, especially in Africa; it has invested heavily in the vaccine strategy and in the creation of Covax, the international mechanism which provides for the distribution of anti-Covid 19 vaccines in 92 poor countries.
"His" foundation? This is where the case gets complicated. If it was the Bill Gates Foundation, the news of the divorce of the 65-year-old multibillionaire, the world's fourth-largest fortune, would be of secondary interest. But the foundation is called "Bill & Melinda Gates"; the two spouses are the co-chairs. When François Hollande presented them with the insignia of Commander of the Legion of Honor at the Elysee Palace in 2017, there were indeed two medals. The press release announcing their divorce, a "carefully considered" decision, was posted on their respective Twitter accounts at the same time. It's signed "Melinda Gates and Bill Gates" - not "Bill & Melinda Gates" nor "Melinda French Gates and Bill Gates" after her maiden name she added to "Gates" for a few years. Every word counts.
The foundation, a common work
The text is brief, concise, and immediately recalls the common work that the couple considers most important, after their three children, now aged 18 to 25: the foundation. "We still share our faith in this mission and we will continue our common work at the foundation, but we no longer believe that we can progress together as a couple in the next stage of our life": these few lines should reassure the 1,600 employees of the foundation.
