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The Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was established in 2000 by its namesake, Bill Gates, and his wife Melinda. The couple created the foundation “to help reduce inequities in the United States and around the world.”1 It is headquartered in Seattle, Washing and is co-chaired by Bill, Melinda and William Gates Sr. Since its founding the foundation has accrued an incredible $31.9 billion and has a net worth of almost $50 billion. With such spending power, the foundation has been able to make great progress, particularly in the areas of global health. It has also made a sincere effort to improve many public school systems in the US.

      The foundation is organized much like a corporation, with a hierarchy that contains several tiers of officers. Bill Gates is the founder and co-chair of the institution and is well known for being the richest man of the world. He began his entrepreneurial career as the CEO of Microsoft where he developed the operating system MS-DOS. He went on to create the most popular group of programs in existence, including Windows and Office. He has been named many different things during his life, including “genius” and “evil.” Paranoid theories aside, it is hard to dispute that he has not changed the world in an extremely significant way, and has profited wildly from doing so. He has already announced that in 2008 he plans to step down from Microsoft as CEO so he can focus his efforts towards the Gates Foundation. Melinda Gates is Bill’s wife, and a co-chair of the foundation. She also worked in Microsoft as the General Manager for Information Products, but she left the company in 1996 to pursue her goals in non-profit ventures. She is a former co-chair on the Duke University board of trustees and has acted as a co-chair on the Washington State Governor’s Commission on Early Learning. The two currently live in Medina, Washington, outside of Seattle and have three children. William Gates Sr., Bill’s father, is also a co-chair of the...