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2009 AnnuAl letter
 
 rom Bill Gates
 
Tis is the frst annual letter I plan to write about my work at theGates Foundation.
In this letter I want to share in a rank way what our goals areand where progress is being made and where it is not. Soon aer Warren Buett made hisincredible gi, which doubled the resources o the oundation, he encouraged me to ollowhis lead by writing an annual letter. I won’t be quoting Mae West or trying to match hishumor, but I will try to be equally candid.Melinda will be sharing some o her thoughts in a video ormat each all. Neither o these communications will replace the ull annual report that we publish each year at
www.gatesoundation.org/annualreport.
Tis past July, I went rom being ull-time at Microso to being ull-time at the oundation.I took a ew weeks o or some amily time, including a trip to Beijing or the Olympics, butI was anxious to keep mysel mentally challenged and so the pause between jobs was brie.Many o my riends were concerned that I wouldn’t nd the oundation work as engagingor rewarding as my work at Microso. I loved my work at Microso and it had been my primary ocus or over 30 years. I too would have worried i I had paused and thought aboutit enough. My job at Microso had three magical things. First there was an opportunity orbig breakthroughs—including changing computers rom being expensive and only or bigcompanies to being inexpensive and empowering to individuals with a wide range o greatsoware or almost any task. I wanted a personal computer with great soware or mysel and everyone else. Second, I thought my skills would let me help create a special company that would be part o a whole new industry. I elt I belonged in the soware business, hav-ing thought about the engineering and the business possibilities maniacally rom age 13.Finally, the work let me engage with people who were smart and knew things I didn’t. Teday-to-day work always involved new problems and new ways o drawing out the best e-orts rom other people. We were always taking risks—some o which didn’t pay o andsome o which did. Most people don’t have even one job that has all those elements, andmy riends thought I wouldn’t be able to avoid comparing my new work to what I had hadat Microso.Despite that high bar, I love the work at the oundation. Although there are many dierences,it also has the three magical elements. First there are opportunities or big breakthroughs—rom discovering new vaccines that can save millions o lives to developing new seeds thatwill let a arming amily have better productivity, improve their children’s nutrition, and sellsome o the extra output. Second, I eel like my experience in building teams o smart peo-ple with dierent skill sets ocused on tough long-term problems can be a real contribution.Te common sense o the business world, with its urgency and ocus, has strong applica-
2009 AnnuAl letter | 2
 
2009 AnnuAl letter | 3
tion in the philanthropic world. I am sure I will make mistakesin over-applying some elements rom my previous experienceand will need to adjust. For instance, the countries where Mi-croso does business are ar more stable and have a lot more in-rastructure than most o the places where the oundation doesits work, so I’ll need to better appreciate how dicult it will beto execute our strategies. However, I am equally condent thatour maniacal ocus on drawing in the best talent and measuringresults will make a dierence. Finally, I nd the intelligence anddedication o the people involved in these issues to be just as im-pressive as what I have seen beore. Whether they are scientistsat a university or people who have worked in the eld in Aricamost o their lives, they have critical knowledge and want tohelp make the breakthroughs. Te opportunity to gather smart,creative people into teams and give them resources and guid-ance as they tackle the challenges is very ullling.A special addition or me at the oundation is getting to work withMelinda. I met her at Microso, but we didn’t get to work togetheras peers like we do now. She and I enjoy sharing ideas and talkingabout what we are learning. When one o us is being very opti-mistic, the other takes on the role o making sure we’re thinkingthrough all the tough issues.Te oundation has learned a lot and has had a signicant im-pact. I want to thank all o our employees and partners or whatthey have accomplished so ar. I should acknowledge three peo-ple in particular. First is Patty Stonesier, whom Melinda and Itrusted to run the oundation and provide the leadership thatbuilt the teams and programs. Te second is my dad, who playsa key role and embodies the thoughtulness and the humility that the oundation hopes to achieve. I still have a lot to learnrom him. I eel lucky that because o both o them we are al-ready nine years down the learning curve. Tey both have donean amazing job. Finally I want to thank Je Raikes, who took over as CEO rom Patty last all, or the great work I know hewill do with us in the years ahead.Tere are so many interesting and important topics to writeabout that it’s a challenge or me to keep my comments short.Each year I’ll touch upon some o the things that are top o mind. In this year’s letter I will share some observations andlearning rom the three areas we work in: Global Health, GlobalDevelopment, and our U.S. Program. I will close with an up-date on three diseases that are particularly interesting and somethoughts on the role o oundations and the challenges causedby the global economic crisis.
With Melinda at Lee High School, Houston
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