[mgj-discuss] Gates foundation on the move - and not in the right direction.

[Sameer Dossani]

Dear all, it seems that someone has taken a slogan about privatizing the 
Bank a bit too literally! In the article below, it looks as though a lot 
of the terrible market fundamentalist, genetically engineered, 
intellectual property rights and big-project oriented policies are being 
taken up by the biggest foundation on the planet, the Gates foundation. 
Specifically, they've hired former staff of some of the worst 
institutions of predatory hyper-capitalism including Monsanto, the World 
Bank and GalaxoSmithKlein to run their programs... The article didn't 
paste so well, so check out the original link if you can.

-Sameer.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003308397_gateshires17.html 



*Want to work for the Gates Foundation?*

*By Kristi Heim*
/Seattle Times business reporter/

If you were the richest person in the world out to solve some of the 
hardest problems on the planet, who would you put on your team?

The newest members of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation include a 
World Bank vice president, a genetic engineer from seed giant Monsanto, 
the founder of an Internet company in Africa, and the former chief 
executive of a $100 million cattle-breeding company.

The Gates vision to remake the world has plenty of capital, flush with 
the first $1.6 billion infusion of Warren Buffett's estimated $31 
billion donation. Now the foundation requires experts to manage 
burgeoning programs and figure out how to spend twice as much money each 
year as it did before.

New hires are flocking to Seattle from around the country and the world, 
demonstrating the foundation's ability to attract top talent.

But keeping them all focused on the same goals and values in the midst 
of such frantic growth is another challenge.

The foundation has hired about 100 people since January, 68 of them for 
newly created positions. It now has 319 employees, and the flood of job 
applications averages about 100 per day.

"Having the opportunity to be here now is pretty exciting," said Martha 
Choe, a former Seattle City Council member who directs the Global 
Libraries Program. "We're moving quickly, and we're trying to get a lot 
of things done."

Sometimes it's hard to move quickly enough, she said. "I joke that I'm 
looking around for my motorized Rollerblades."

No part of the foundation has grown as fast as its newest effort, Global 
Development, which aims to bolster the nonprofit's work in health and 
education by improving food production, supporting small business 
through microcredit, and increasing access to computers and the Internet 
in libraries.

With the breakneck pace of a startup company, Global Development went 
from a strategic opportunity to be studied to a major program doling out 
$200 million in grants this year. Since its inception in May, the 
program has grown to 36 employees.

At its helm is Sylvia Mathews, the 41-year-old former deputy chief of 
staff to President Clinton, who has been with the foundation since 2001.

Mathews said she looks for "people who are experts in their field but 
also have a proven track record of devising innovative solutions."

Last month she brought in Geoffrey Lamb, a World Bank vice president who 
had led its Concessional Finance and Global Partnerships arm. Lamb 
joined the foundation as senior fellow, charged with guiding strategy 
and forming partnerships with governments. He will work to gather 
support for efforts such as a pilot program to provide free public 
Internet access in libraries in Eastern Europe and a major drive to 
improve farm productivity in Africa.

The foundation also has hired heavyweights from the agricultural 
industry, such as Monsanto vice president Robert Horsch, a scientist who 
led genetic engineering of plants at the seed giant. As senior program 
officer, Horsch will apply the technology toward improving crop yields 
in regions including sub-Saharan Africa, where the foundation recently 
launched a major drive with the Rockefeller Foundation.

**Some high-profile hires**


**

*Sylvia Mathews*

*Was:* Deputy chief of staff to President Clinton

*Now:* President of the Global Development Program

*Amolo Ng'weno*

*Was:* Co-founder of Africa Online

*Now:* Senior program officer for Financial Services for the Poor

*Roy Steiner*

*Was:* Founder of Cyberplex Africa

*Now:* Senior program officer for Agricultural Development

*Bakari Bakari*

*Was:* Manager of international HIV clinical trial at the University of 
Washington

*Now:* Director of operations

for Global Development

*Martha Choe*

*Was:* Seattle councilwoman, director of state Community, Trade and 
Economic Development department

*Now:* Director of Global Libraries initiative

*Dr. Tadataka (Tachi) Yamada*

*Was:* Chairman of research and development at GlaxoSmithKline

*Now:* President of Global Health Program

/Sources: Gates Foundation, The Seattle Times/

Lutz Goedde, former chief executive of Alta Genetics, the largest 
private cattle-breeding company in the world, also left private industry 
to join the foundation. His work as senior program officer will include 
expanding access to domestic and international markets for small farmers 
in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Earlier this year, the foundation hired Tadataka Yamada, former chairman 
of research and development at pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, to 
direct its Global Health Program. His experience developing new drugs is 
critical for understanding how to speed vaccine development for malaria 
and other diseases, said senior policy officer Monica Harrington.

Some people coming from private industries take significant pay cuts to 
join the foundation, Harrington said. Salaries are generally measured 
against comparable positions in the nonprofit sector, she said.

According to the foundation's most recent tax filing, its highest-paid 
employee, Ashok Alexander, who directs the HIV prevention initiative in 
India, made about $400,000 a year.

Several new employees have backgrounds in Africa, including Amolo 
Ng'weno, a native Kenyan who co-founded Internet service provider Africa 
Online and worked for the Trust for African Rock Art; Roy Steiner, a 
Canadian transplant in Zimbabwe who founded Web development company 
Cyberplex Africa and helped run Africa Online; and Bakari Bakari, a 
native Tanzanian who directs overall operations for global development.

New employees have also come from local sources such as Microsoft and 
Boeing, government and other nonprofits. The foundation tends not to 
hire people just out of college. In fact, most come in with about 10 
years of experience.

"We're looking for people who are really driven by the mission," Choe 
said. That means "a willingness to tackle some tough things with not a 
lot of road signs on how to do it. People who are very comfortable with 
change."

Sometimes the growth borders on chaos. Staffers joke that there's no 
need to get business cards — their titles and responsibilities change 
too fast. The foundation's office space has been continually reorganized 
to make room for more employees. Bill Gates moved into Melinda's office 
recently to share space, handing his old office over to four staff members.

To accommodate that growth, the foundation is expected to break ground 
next year on a new headquarters on a 12-acre site near Seattle Center.

One of the biggest challenges is "instilling the principles of the 
foundation" in its newest team members, Mathews said.

At the core is faith in the power of science and technology to improve 
lives.

Some of the new global development initiatives head into controversial 
territory, such as the debate over genetically modified crops. But the 
foundation says it intends to pursue any options that could help to 
reach its goal of increasing agricultural productivity in poor countries.

Free giveaways of Microsoft software to libraries in 35 countries, part 
of the Global Libraries Initiative, could face resistance in places like 
Europe, where the government has imposed antitrust sanctions.

Another challenge will be getting people with such vastly different 
backgrounds to embrace a common culture. It might not be so easy 
convincing high achievers with advanced degrees from Ivy League schools 
to be "humble and mindful."

That motto, one of the principles said to reflect the Gateses' views 
about philanthropy, originated with Bill Gates Sr., who is the "ultimate 
conscience" of the foundation, Harrington said.

As the new employees converged on Seattle, a scavenger hunt was 
organized in September to help them get acquainted. Teams raced around 
to find landmarks, donning ski jackets at REI, jamming air guitar with a 
Jimi Hendrix sculpture, heaving raw fish at Pike Place Market and 
searching shelves at Elliott Bay Book Co. to find a book written by Bill 
Gates.

While the foundation doubles in size up to 600 employees over the next 
two years, it will continue to juggle hiring with the business of giving 
away money.

"Getting new team members takes time," Mathews said, "and so does the 
work of our grantmaking."

/Kristi Heim: 206-464-2718 or kheim at seattletimes.com 
<mailto:kheim at seattletimes.com>/