Warren Buffett Resigns From Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (interestingengineering.com) 48
Warren Buffett, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, announced his resignation as a trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Wednesday, according to a press release. Interesting Engineering reports: Bill and Melinda Gates announced that they were getting divorced in May of 2021. For many, it was an earth-shattering announcement, one that raises a host of questions about the future of their foundation and its quest to end disease worldwide. This latest announcement adds to the growing number of questions about what's in store for the many enterprises currently being managed by the Gates Foundation. The foundation supplies grants to researchers studying polio, nutrition, agriculture, global education, sanitation, HIV, malaria, tobacco control, vaccines, gender inequality...and we're just getting started.
At the age of 90, Buffet has donated $41 billion worth of Berkshire stock to the five foundations. In today's announcement, he added that he has donated an extra $4.1 billion, but he didn't give a reason for his decision. "Today is a milestone for me," Buffett wrote in a statement. "In 2006, I pledged to distribute all of my Berkshire Hathaway shares -- more than 99% of my net worth -- to philanthropy. With today's $4.1 billion distribution, I'm halfway there."
"For years I have been a trustee -- an inactive trustee at that -- of only one recipient of my funds, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMG). I am now resigning from that post, just as I have done at all corporate boards other than Berkshire's," Buffett said. "The CEO of BMG is Mark Suzman, an outstanding recent selection who has my full support. My goals are 100% in sync with those of the foundation, and my physical participation is in no way needed to achieve these goals."
At the age of 90, Buffet has donated $41 billion worth of Berkshire stock to the five foundations. In today's announcement, he added that he has donated an extra $4.1 billion, but he didn't give a reason for his decision. "Today is a milestone for me," Buffett wrote in a statement. "In 2006, I pledged to distribute all of my Berkshire Hathaway shares -- more than 99% of my net worth -- to philanthropy. With today's $4.1 billion distribution, I'm halfway there."
"For years I have been a trustee -- an inactive trustee at that -- of only one recipient of my funds, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMG). I am now resigning from that post, just as I have done at all corporate boards other than Berkshire's," Buffett said. "The CEO of BMG is Mark Suzman, an outstanding recent selection who has my full support. My goals are 100% in sync with those of the foundation, and my physical participation is in no way needed to achieve these goals."
There's got to be more to this story (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
May or may not be relevant:
https://www.businessinsider.co... [businessinsider.com]
Re: (Score:2)
From your link:
Bill Gates stayed late at Epstein's apartment, and Epstein's former girlfriend and her 15-year-old daughter were also present...Bill Gates wrote an email to his colleagues...referring to Epstein's spontaneous way of inviting acquaintances to meet his guests.
Bill and Melinda had a somewhat open relationship, but maybe she couldn't handle the implication that Bill had a sexual experience of some kind with an underage girl?
Re: (Score:3)
Bill Gates stayed late at Epstein's apartment, and Epstein's former girlfriend and her 15-year-old daughter were also present....Bill Gates wrote an email to his colleagues. A spokeswoman for Gates told the Times that the email was referring to Epstein's "unique decor" and spontaneous way of inviting acquaintances to meet his guests.
Bill and Melinda had a somewhat open relationship, but maybe she couldn't handle the implication that Bill had a sexual experience of some kind with an underage girl?
Should we also make up rumors about the presence of some goldfish, hamsters, ball gags, and Fleshlights at the meeting? I mean, if you're going insinuate something degenerate happened, you might as well go all out. Just being in the same room as Epstein is so toxic people are willing to believe almost anything they hear.
The true reason for the divorce are known to only Bill and Melinda and they are being very private about it. If the two billion dollars Melinda received ever runs out, perhaps she'll wr
Re: (Score:2)
The true reason for the divorce are known to only Bill and Melinda and they are being very private about it.
The evidence seems strong it was related to Epstein [theguardian.com].
Re: (Score:2)
The evidence seems strong it was related to Epstein.
I find it difficult to characterize statements made by unnamed sources as "strong" evidence. Even you have a problem with it as shown by your use of the weasel-word "seems".
Re: (Score:2)
I find it difficult to characterize statements made by unnamed sources as "strong" evidence.
WSJ is careful about using unnamed sources. When they cite an unnamed source, it's usually right.
If that's the only concern you have, then you should feel confident that you have no concerns and the article is right.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
Honestly I hope he was fucking young girls, because any other reason he might have for hanging out with pimps and sex offenders is probably worse.
I think your probability sensor needs calibration. What are you imagining he could have done with them that's worse?
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Well there's that whole Qanon thing where children are being used as pizza toppings, that would be alarming. Rich dudes fucking young girls doesn't feel like a bid deal. I mean, we've got Matt Gaetz, who is a US congressman, and we know for a fact that he trafficked an underaged girl for sex, but he is in no danger of even losing his seat. So why would would we hold Billy G to a higher standard?
Because Gates is the wrong ideology.
Re: (Score:3)
The bizarre world working living as a 1%er.
The old phrase Poor People are Insane, while a Wealthy person is eccentric. Also the phrase, It isn't what you know, but who you know.
So for Wealthy people, they have to be connected to other wealthy people, and much of these wealthy people are considered "eccentric" but could probably be really labeled Insane, but they have so much power because they know so many people and have so much money that no one is going to question them.
I expect Gates is used to Weird an
Re: (Score:1)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/m... [forbes.com]
- Divorce
- Steps Down From Microsoft Boards Of Directors
- Steps Down From Berkshire Hathaway's Boards Of Directors
- Warren Buffet Steps Down From Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
https://appleinsider.com/artic... [appleinsider.com]
An affair so bad other people start leaving your foundation?
Re: (Score:2)
I think it is just a reciprocal action from Buffet for Gates leaving BH.
I never really got the idea of the Boards of Directors, as it just a bunch of Rich Dudes, who care less about the company (as they are often owners of their own which may have a degree of competition with), but just kinda wheel and deal in private, saying they are watching out for the companies finances.
Re: (Score:2)
Boards of Directors are there to beat up company management any time the profit margins thin a bit. Lean year? The BoD will "provide" a statement to management that's the equivalent of "Get your shit together and get fired."
On good years the BoDs spend company money to gather in some resort to discuss how much money they're dragging out of the working dumb dumbs that keep the company running. On bad years they meet at the company itself to throw their proverbial weight around and humpf at anybody that da
Re: (Score:2)
Dammit. Should have read the preview. That's supposed to say "Get your shit together OR get fired."
Re: (Score:2)
Re:There's got to be more to this story (Score:5, Insightful)
Almost certainly he is feeling old and in the wake of the divorce, they were asking him to do actual work as a trustee. He understandably didn't want to do it.
As long as the topic of Polio was brought up, I want to add that the only reason it isn't gone from the world completely is because the CIA are a bunch of fuckups. They never do anything right.
Re: (Score:2)
As long as the topic of Polio was brought up, I want to add that the only reason it isn't gone from the world completely is because the CIA are a bunch of fuckups. They never do anything right.
Kind of like how there are whole nations that the Gates Foundation can't get into because you can't get vaccinations from them unless you grant strong IP laws to Big Pharma in your country, because it is fundamentally a profit making enterprise, so they haven't actually eliminated any diseases.
Re:There's got to be more to this story (Score:5, Insightful)
"Old guy not getting any younger, decides to reduce his distractions for the remainder of his life" is what it looks like to me.
Re:There's got to be more to this story (Score:4, Interesting)
Warren knows he is 90, that is NINETY, years old. His life expectancy is FOUR years. OK, with his wealth, let's add 1 year to 5.
He knows that
a) He is a wealthy billionaire with a conscience but little to no knowledge of what people actually need. So his input is not needed, just his money.
b) He would like to spend his time doing something fun. He has definitely earned it.
Personally, I would buy one of those new circular projection sets that they are replacing green screen movie production with. Then I'd pay people to convert those 3d video games to use that system.
Re:There's got to be more to this story (Score:4, Interesting)
Exactly and one thing I am sure he does not want to spend the time he has left doing is answering endless questions about Bill Gates he most probably does not have any answers for.
When you get to be Buffet's age the future is limited and uncertain even if you are lucky enough to both healthy enough to have lived 90 years in the first place and not be a captive animal in some elder care facility, you don't know what the next month is really going to be like fore you.
Take my grandfather: at 94 he was going up and down and extension ladder all afternoon bringing me bags of shingles while I was roofing. At 95 we had to move him in with us. By 96 his COPD had gone from I have to stop and catch my breath and jogging is out, to I can't walk up hill, his vision had gone from pretty good to nearly blind, his hearing had gone from look at me when you are speaking and turn up the TV to practically deaf, and shortly after his 96th birthday he passed.
If I was 90, I'd want to be making sure I was spending my time doing things that were important to me, which might very well be helping family members secure their own future getting the roof nailed down, taking trips to see my favorite places again, going fast in sports car even if someone else has to drive it, etc. I certainly would not want to spend my time trying to invent politically-correct-non-answers for questions by paparazzi about the divorce of some guy 20 years my junior whose charity organization I happen to be attached to.
Re: (Score:2)
Or maybe a 90 year old is trying to cut back a little bit.
90-year old resigns from inactive position (Score:5, Informative)
Film at 11.
Re: 90-year old resigns from inactive position (Score:3)
Yea I get that there are clicks if you hint at a Bill Gates scandal, but this seems pretty normal.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Found the one guy that thinks Epstein killed himself.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Slow Celebrity News Day? (Score:2)
Not tech, just trivia.
Time Marches On. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Why? Its his company, he can do what he likes with it. Unless he's a complete fool he's already written into his will what happens to it so even if he drops dead tommorow its future is assured.
Re: (Score:1)
How long has it taken *you* to carefully administer giving $45 billion of your money to the organizations who will best use it?
How long has it taken you to give even $100 to carefully chosen charity?
Oh yeah, you've been busy smoking weed on the couch.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
I haven't. I also haven't been one of the largest mobile home loan providers, trapping those with the least into a debt trap.
Eww, Mobile homes.
I lived in 2 different mobile homes, while I saved my money for a hefty down payment on a house.
If you think buying/getting loans for those are bad, ya gotta consider the real estate system of talking people into much more than they can afford to buy, then have them do 30 year mortgages in order to afford the payments but living the house poor life.
The only way Buffet could have been worse was if he lent you the money, then broke in and molested your children, then shot you and took
Re: (Score:1)
My question is who's the next uberrich person who pledges to make huge philanthropy with a tiny asterisk that says *someday, maybe?
How long has it taken *you* to carefully administer giving $45 billion of your money to the organizations who will best use it?
How long has it taken you to give even $100 to carefully chosen charity?
Oh yeah, you've been busy smoking weed on the couch.
The OP is just another envious wingnut wannabe billionaire with permanent cash flow problems and a complete lack of business genius. It always amuses me to point out to them that Warren Buffet has given away something like 10 times Donald Trump's net worth at it's peak. Even George Soros has given away something like five times Trump's current net worth.
Didn't need to give a reason (Score:4, Insightful)
"I am now resigning from that post, just as I have done at all corporate boards other than Berkshire' "
What's so hard to understand? He's 90 FFS.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
"I am now resigning from that post, just as I have done at all corporate boards other than Berkshire' "
What's so hard to understand? He's 90 FFS.
Uh huh. He just suddenly resigned. Just a coincidence.
No, just part of his cunning and carefully though out plan to resign from all his board memberships except Berkshire Hathaway at the ripe old age of 90. Brother Occam's shaving instrument practically always gives better results than conspiracy theories from parler.com.
'philanthropists'? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Ah, I think I get it now. When the media says, 'philanthropist,' they mean a person who more than likely has some degree of antisocial personality disorder.
You forgot the 5g Chips he put in the vaccine that Trump invented to counteract the virus that Fauci flew over to Wuhan to create.
But to answer your question about penance, yeah - it happens.
But my best guess is tthat one evening after dinner, Melinda brought out some of her pantys, and asked Bill:
Melinda: "Know what these are, Bill?"
Bill: "Sure - they're your panties."
Melinda: "Well, Bill, if you ever want to get into them again, you're gonna have to be less of a dick, and do something good with