Bill Gates To End Regular Duties At Microsoft By July 2008

Did you ever think the computer/ tech industry would impact the pharmaceutical market like this?

Devote Full-Time Efforts To Gates Foundation

Update: Warren Buffett gives away his fortune

Bill Gates on Thursday announced plans to relinquish over the next two years all daily work duties at Microsoft, the company he founded, and work fulltime for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which to date has spent more than $10 billion on programs to fight HIV/AIDS and other global health concerns and reform education, the Los Angeles Times reports (Gaither/Yue Jones, Los Angeles Times, 6/16). Melinda and Bill Gates and Irish musician Bono in December 2005 were named TIME magazine's "Persons of the Year" for their efforts to improve global health and eradicate poverty. The Gates Foundation has an endowment of $29 billion (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 12/19/05). According to the Times, the foundation's spending "rivals" that of the World Health Organization (Los Angeles Times, 6/16). The Gates Foundation accounts for more than half of worldwide spending, about $159 million, on research and treatment for diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria. "With success, I have been given great wealth," Bill Gates said, adding, "And with great wealth comes great responsibility to give back to society, to see that those resources are put to work in the best possible way to help those in need" (Kehaulani Goo, Washington Post, 6/16). Bill Gates will remain chair of Microsoft and have the title of "senior technical adviser" after the transition is complete (Keefe, Cox/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 6/16).

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