The arrival of a new chief executive officer at the world’s largest charitable foundation comes with much less fanfare than Bill Gates’ own decision to leave Microsoft Corp to focus more on his family’s philanthropy.
Jeff Raikes, 50, a former top executive at the software giant, will be the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s second leader since its inception in 1997. He is replacing Patty Stonesifer, another former Microsoft executive and friend of Bill and Melinda Gates, who said in February that she would step down.
Raikes started his job in silence yesterday, as the charity has denied requests for media interviews in order to give him 100 days of solitude to focus on his new job.
But Raikes has shared his perspective about the new position in several recent interviews.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to be joining the Gates Foundation,” Raikes said. “This is truly a dream job.”
In July, Bill Gates stepped away from his daily duties at the software company he co-founded to focus on the work of his US$38 billion foundation. His wife, Melinda, also has stepped up her time commitment to the foundation.
Raikes has known Bill Gates since starting at Microsoft in 1991 and says he has learned a lot about the foundation over the years.
He expects some of his biggest challenges to be getting up to speed as quickly as possible and managing the foundation’s rapid growth.
The foundation could add as many as 200 new employees to its existing staff of about 600, Raikes said.
In the past decade, the foundation has given away more than US$16 billion, mostly in global health, global development and US education.
It has been ramping up its giving since Warren Buffett, head of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway, announced in June 2006 that he would make annual donations of about US$1.5 billion to the foundation, with the money to be distributed in the year it is donated.
The breadth of its work seemed a little overwhelming to Raikes at first, with three key program areas and 22 initiatives.
“All have very significant — some would say audacious — goals,” he said.
Until this year, he was president of Microsoft’s business software division, responsible for such things as the Office software suite, Microsoft’s server software and applications that help businesses track customers and business processes.
In addition to his years in business management, his volunteer work with various nonprofit organizations focusing on education and children’s issues give him many of the skills he will need to the run the foundation.
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