Charity closing gates on software role

LOS ANGELES - The US$30 billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world's richest philanthropic organisations, may gain an even higher profile as the Microsoft founder devotes more time to its health and education projects.

Gates said yesterday he was beginning a two-year move away from his day-to-day role at the Seattle-based software company to spend more time on his charitable work.

"It's an interesting move," said Ian Wilhelm, a senior writer at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, which tracks charitable giving.

Gates, the world's wealthiest man, has said that a sizeable portion of his fortune, estimated by Forbes magazine in March to total more than US$50 billion ($80 billion), would go to charity and not his three children.

The 50-year-old Harvard dropout has described his philosophy as giving back his wealth to society. Last year the foundation distributed US$1.36 billion in grants, an 8 per cent increase from 2004.

The Gates endowment has committed millions to fighting diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis in developing countries, and to education and library technology in the United States.

Last year Gates told the World Health Organisation: "I'm convinced we will see more groundbreaking scientific advances for health in the developing world in the next 10 years than we have seen in the last 50."

- REUTERS