EXCLUSIVE: Bill Gates Reveals How He And Ex-Wife Melinda Came Together For Blockbuster $20 Billion Gift That Makes Them World’s Biggest Givers by RandallLane
, the 91-year-old Duty Free founder who in the course of giving away more than $8 billion took himself off The Forbes 400 list to something close to broke. Rather than wait for his death, Gates now says he fully intends to give his way off the Forbes billionaires list while he’s still alive. “I'll get myself out of the highly visible part of the list with just, say, two more gifts of this magnitude. I would get myself off the top part of the list,” says Gates.
According to Bill Gates, though, so far, so good. “I think all the evidence I see says that we’ll be able to run the foundation together forever.” He says he first consulted with her and with foundation CEO Mark Suzman about the $20 billion transfer three months ago, eventually bringing in Buffett and the foundation board. The economic tremors over that period did nothing to dissuade him of this course, in part with encouragement from Melinda French Gates.
“She gets to speak for herself, but everything I see says that, ‘Hey, we're the great partnership running the foundation, we’ve always been.’” Gates cited a recent trip that his ex-wife took to Africa. “So she went to Rwanda where the Commonwealth heads of state got together. She went to Senegal and she was writing back every day.
Warren Buffett has given away nearly $49 billion, of which $35.7 billion has gone to the Gates Foundation.Regardless, Buffett has had an impact. “I’m so influenced by Warren that I can hardly claim an original thought in some just means of understanding investment or general approach to philanthropy.
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