Gates Foundation announces Program Advisory Panels

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - oft-criticized for its 3 person governance structure overseeing $30+ billion in assets - announced two Program Advisory panels today. One panel will advise the Foundation about its global development program and the other will provide insights on the Foundation's U.S. programs. A global health panel will be named in next few weeks. Members of the two panels include:

Global Development Program Advisory Panel

• Rajat Gupta (Chair), Chairman of the Board, India School of Business; former Managing Director, McKinsey & Company
• Amina J. Ibrahim, Senior Special Assistant to the President on the Millennium Development Goals, The Presidency, Nigeria
• Kavita Nandini Ramdas, President and CEO, Global Fund for Women
• Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University; former President, Harvard University; former Secretary, United States Treasury
• Ernesto Zedillo, Director, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization; former President of Mexico
• Philip Zelikow, White Burkett Miller Professor of History, University of Virginia; former Counselor, U.S. Department of State

U.S. Program Advisory Panel members include:

· Ann Fudge (Chair), former Chairman and CEO, Young & Rubicam Brands

· Henry Cisneros, Chairman and CEO, CityView; former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

· Christopher Edley, Dean, Boalt School of Law, University of California at Berkeley

· Edward Glaeser, Professor of Economics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University

· Walter Massey, President Emeritus, Morehouse College

The panels are notably heavy on academics, some of whom are rather controversial.

Tags: philanthropy, gates