Melinda French Gates has announced that she will be stepping down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nonprofit she founded with her ex-husband, Bill Gates over 20 years ago. 

Bill and Gates filed for divorce in 2021 after 27 years of marriage but pledged to continue their philanthropic work together. 

“This is not a decision I came to lightly,” French Gates wrote in her statement posted on X platform on Monday, May 13, 2024.

“I am immensely proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together and of the extraordinary work it is doing to address inequities worldwide.” 

She praised the foundation’s CEO, Mark Suzman, and the foundation’s board of trustees, which was significantly expanded after the couple announced their divorce in May 2021.

“The time is right for me to move forward into the next chapter of my philanthropy,”

She organises some of her investments and philanthropic gifts through her organisation, Pivotal Ventures, which is not a nonprofit.

Bill Gates thanked French Gates for her “critical” contributions to the foundations in a statement, saying, “I am sorry to see her leave, but I am sure she will have a huge impact in her future philanthropic work.”

French Gates will receive $12.5 billion as part of her agreement with Gates, which she said would commit to future work focused on women and families.

The Gates Foundation holds $75.2 billion in its endowment as of December 2023, and announced in January, it planned to spend $8.6 billion through the course of its work in 2024.