Warren Buffett resigns from the Gates Foundation, donating $4.1bn as departing gift
Warren Buffett has resigned as a trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to put his focus onto his positions at US conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, which owns Duracell and Dairy Queen.
As a departing gift, Buffet – who is worth around $105.3bn according to Forbes – will donate $4.1bn to the foundation.
The billionaire is also the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, which has stakes in Kraft Heinz, the Bank of America and Coca Cola.
Buffett, a long-time friend of fellow billionaire Bill Gates, had been an active donor at the Gates Foundation as it is one of five nonprofit organisations to which he has pledged the majority of his fortune.
His latest donation takes his total offering to the foundation, including $41bn of Berkshire stock, to around $45.1bn.
“For years I have been a trustee — an inactive trustee at that — of only one recipient of my funds, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMG),” Buffett said in a statement.
“I am now resigning from that post, just as I have done at all corporate boards other than Berkshire’s.”