Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and Chief Content Officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week, this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership, drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to receive it yourself.
Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman faces a rare leadership challenge: leading an organization that has announced its commitment to spend $200 billion over the next 20 years — double what the organization spent in its first 25 years — as he works to close its doors for good on December 31, 2045.
Suzman, who joined the foundation in 2007 as director of global development policy, advocacy and special initiatives, and became CEO in 2020, says the finality and scope of his mandate actually provides clarity and focus. “It allows us to be very predictable and reliable for the next 20 years,” he says. “That is a luxury for a CEO.”
With clarity comes focus
The foundation announced that it is disappearing earlier this year, according to Suzman, accelerating a shutdown had always been part of the organization’s long-term plan. At the time of the announcement, chairman and board member Bill Gates said the nonprofit would focus its efforts in three areas: ending preventable deaths of mothers and babies, eradicating deadly infectious diseases and putting millions of people on a path to economic prosperity.
That means some programs will ‘graduate’ or be reworked. Some existing initiatives that fall outside the focus areas or may not be feasible in 2045 will transition into new partnerships. For example, the foundation’s work to advance technology and tools to expand economic opportunity for Americans is now part of that NextLadder Venturesa coalition of philanthropic organizations including Ballmer Group (co-founded by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer), Valhalla Foundation, Stand Together and others.
Leadership through change
I asked Suzman how to lead a team of more than 2,000 mission-driven employees – some of whom are no longer prioritizing projects – through this lengthy transition. He states that the foundation has always had to make difficult choices. “When you’re part of an institution that has a broader set of goals, there are going to be tradeoffs: tradeoffs about how we distribute our internal resources, how we distribute Bill’s vote. We’re working on this by trying to pull people toward our shared goals,” he says.
He also repeated a common refrain I hear from virtually every CEO trying to navigate an organization through massive change: “You can never overcommunicate enough,” he says. “You have to continue to get that message out through every possible channel, internally and externally, to help people see the connections and understand how they all come together toward the greater purpose of the foundation.”
The phasing out of the foundation follows major changes in its structure. In 2024, Warren Buffett, who has donated $48 billion since 2006, said the foundation would receive no contributions upon his death. That same year, Melinda French Gates resigned as co-chair after 24 years and received $12.5 billion from the foundation for her independent philanthropic work. In January 2025, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was renamed the Gates Foundation, with Bill Gates becoming its sole chairman.
Message to the next generation
The announcement also coincides with challenges to some of the causes the foundation has championed, including vaccines and international aid. Suzman notes that the Gates Foundation is now the largest funder of the World Health Organization (WHO), following President Donald J. Trump’s support. executive order withdraw from the WHO.
Suzman argues that philanthropy should not only provide resources to healthcare and humanitarian organizations that governments have historically supported. But he is also encouraging a new generation of business leaders and founders to begin their giving journey.
“I am the beneficiary of the amazing generosity of Bill, Warren and Melinda… they themselves often talk about how personally fulfilling philanthropy is to them,” says Suzman. He adds: “We just hope that more people will follow our example. The world needs it desperately.”
Sailing into the sunset
Have you ever had to lead the wind-down of a company or organization? How did you do that and how did you keep employees involved? Send your stories to me stephaniemehta@mansueto.com for possible use in a future newsletter.
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