SEATTLE — Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates have finalized their divorce.
Bill Gates was once the world’s richest man, with an estimated fortune of $150 billion.
With a $50 billion endowment, the Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Charity is the world’s most powerful private foundation. Since its inception in 2000, it has focused on worldwide health and development as well as education concerns in the United States.
If French Gates resigns, Gates would effectively buy her out of the foundation, which is one of the world’s greatest private charity organizations, and she will get funds from him to continue her humanitarian efforts. According to the foundation, the funds received would be independent of the endowment.