Microsoft veteran to head foundation

May 13, 2008

A top ranking executive from Bill Gates' inner circle at Microsoft will become the next chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Jeff Raikes, 49, will succeed Patty Stonesifer as head of the world's largest philanthropy, managing a $37 billion endowment, $3 billion a year in grants, and ambitious goals such as eradicating malaria and developing a vaccine to prevent AIDS. Raikes spent 27 years at Microsoft, longer than anyone besides Gates and Chief Executive Steven A. Ballmer. He follows Stonesifer as a Microsoft veteran with close connections to the Gates family stepping in to help run the philanthropy.