Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Bumble apologizes for its recent ad campaign, Sherry House will become Ford’s first female CFO, and Melinda French Gates prepares for the next chapter of her philanthropy—with $12.5 billion in tow. Have a great Tuesday!
– Ready for impact. Melinda French Gates yesterday announced that she will resign from her role as co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The unexpected news comes three years after the announcement of her divorce from Microsoft founder Bill Gates and less than a year after she said she planned to stay at the foundation she cofounded for the “foreseeable future.”
“The time is right for me to move forward into the next chapter of my philanthropy,” she wrote in a statement posted on X.
Whatever the reasons for French Gates’ exit, what will be most interesting is what happens next. Under the terms of her departure, she will leave with $12.5 billion for her own philanthropy.
French Gates already runs Pivotal Ventures, her organization focused on advancing gender equality in the U.S. Through philanthropy, investing, and advocacy. Pivotal Ventures has funded pediatric telehealth startup Summer Health, funds like Female Founders Fund, and efforts to get more women into political office. Five years ago, she announced a $1 billion pledge to promote gender equality. She’s supported causes including abortion rights (alongside her daughter Phoebe Gates), caregiving, and paid family leave.
The Gates Foundation has taken a more global view, with much of its $75.2 billion endowment going toward global health equity. There too, French Gates has focused on the well-being of women and girls.
After exiting the Gates Foundation next month, French Gates said she plans to commit her $12.5 billion “to my work on behalf of women and families.” “I’ll be sharing more about what that looks like in the near future,” she added.
“This is a critical moment for women and girls in the U.S. And around the world—and those fighting to protect and advance gender equality are in urgent need of support,” French Gates wrote.
By “critical moment,” could French Gates be referring to the rollback of abortion rights in the U.S.? Women’s wellbeing globally? Or, as many will be interested to see, the upcoming U.S. Presidential election? Signs point in that direction. As Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman reportedly told employees: “After a difficult few years watching women’s rights rolled back in the U.S. And around the world, she wants to use this next chapter to focus specifically on altering that trajectory.”
Whatever French Gates chooses to do in the next stage of her philanthropy, she will shape the future of women and girls around the world.
Coins2Day Brainstorm Tech is returning to Park City, Utah from July 15 to 17 with a number of high profile women in business. This year’s event will include speakers Peggy Johnson, the CEO of human-centric robots developer Agility Robotics; Maëlle Gavet, CEO of investment firm Techstars; and Mary Daly, the president and CEO of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank. Apply for an invitation here.
Emma Hinchliffe
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Bumble fumble. Bumble apologized for ads that ran as part of its recent rebrand that said, “You know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer.” Users bristled at the forceful language, which they said pressured people into sex and dismissed women's reasons for rejecting it—from trauma to the rollback of abortion rights. Wall Street Journal
- Taking the wheel. Sherry House will become the first female CFO of Ford Motor Company when she succeeds the current CFO in early 2025. House most recently served as CFO at Lucid Motors and held multiple leadership positions at Waymo, a developer of autonomous self-driving technology. Coins2Day
- News from the field. Multiple investors are reportedly lining up to acquire a stake in the women's team of the Chelsea Football Club, one of Europe’s top women’s soccer teams. One potential investor is reportedly Mercury 13, a firm focused on investing in women’s soccer. In other news from the sport, an unnamed women's soccer team is s et to debut in August at Washington, D.C.'s Audi Field as part of the USL Super League, a new women’s circuit. Audi Field is already home of the NWSL's Washington Spirit.
- Retraining the ranks. Two defense ministry officials in Japan say there are no plans to overhaul sexual harassment training policies despite an independent panel deeming them ineffective and inadequate last year. Recruiting women is critical to the country's military expansion, but female applicants fell 12% in the year ending March 2023 after a string of sexual harassment claims among the ranks. Reuters
- Storm grows. Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former attorney, testified in Trump’s hush-money trial on Monday that the former president alerted him that “there’s going to be a lot of women coming forward” once he announced his 2016 presidential run. Cohen also testified that Trump feared female voters would “hate” him if Stormy Daniels’ account went public. CNBC
- Taking initiative.E.l.f. Beauty debuted a campaign called “So Many Dicks” to point out that men named Richard outnumber directors from underrepresented groups on the boards of publicly-traded U.S. Companies. The beauty business runs a “Change the Board Game” initiative, which trains promising women for directorships. Adweek
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Tory Burch appointed Beverly Morgan as chief people officer and Emilia Fabricant as president, chief merchandising and global supply chain officer. Akoya announced Courtney Robinson as head of policy and communications. Alison Rapaport Stillman, longtime partner at Serena Williams's Serena Ventures, is exiting the firm; Beth Ferreira, formerly of FirstMark Capital, will join the fund.
ON MY RADAR
‘I don’t have faith in doctors anymore.’ Women say they were pressured into long-term birth control Time
Miranda July turns the lights on The New Yorker
Birthing mothers’ near-death experience rates are 100 times higher than maternal mortality—and we don’t even know exactly why Coins2Day
PARTING WORDS
“We have to know that sometimes people will open the door for you and leave it open. Sometimes they won't, and then you need to kick that f--king door down.”
— Vice President Kamala Harris in a message to young people during the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies Summit on Monday.
