Masiyiwa joins Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation board
MARTHA MAMOMBE
One of Africa’s billionaires Strive Masiyiwa has been appointed to the board of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in another recognition for the telecoms moguls.
The Zimbabwean telecoms mogul was appointed by one of the world’s richest men and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to the philanthropy and charity arm of his empire. Masiyiwa is one of three new additions to the Washington DC headquartered nonprofit organisation.
Announcing the new board members, the Chief Executive Officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Mark Suzman said “Strive Masiyiwa, Minouche Shafik and Tom Tierney are just all incredible experts. Strive has played a number of big leadership roles, in areas from agriculture to medicine.”
Founded in year 2000, the foundation has fought to address poverty, disease, gender inequality around the world. The private organisation employs over 1600 people with a hefty of US$49bn in 2019 for charitable work according to its website.
“He is very energetic, willing to speak his mind” said Bill Gates in a video recording posted on the charity’s website. Reiterating the foundation’s overall sentiment of the Zimbabwean-born mogul, Melinda stated “He is willing to speak broadly about how change can be created in Africa.”
The appointment of Masiyiwa comes in the wake of the appointment of James Manyika as Google’s first Senior Vice President of Technology and Society Division at one Silicon Valley’s evolutionary tech companies Google- owned by Alphabet Company.
A University of Zimbabwe and University of Oxford alumni, Manyika was praised for a sterling job in research and development by Google Chief Executive Officer- Sundar Pichai in a statement announcing his appointment. No doubt more people will be Googling “Zimbabwe” after the country has evidently featured prominently in international news this week.
