Sylvia M. Mathews Named Chief Operating Officer of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

SEATTLE -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced that Sylvia M. Mathews has been named Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director, Libraries, Pacific Northwest and Special Projects. 

As COO, Mathews will continue to guide the foundation’s operations, legal and policy teams.  She also will have organizational and program authority for the foundation’s Pacific Northwest Giving, Library program and special projects.  In that role, she will coordinate long-term strategy and grant making.  Mathews joined the foundation in 2000 as Executive Vice President with responsibility for finance, administration, legal, government relations, public affairs and other foundation activities.

“Sylvia has made important contributions to the foundation that have significantly advanced our work and that of our grantees,” said Patty Stonesifer, the foundation's co-chair and president. “As Chief Operating Officer, she will draw on years of executive management experience within government and the private sector. Her leadership will be an asset across the foundation and within our Pacific Northwest and library programs, as well as with special projects and partnerships.”

Sylvia M. Mathews previously served in the Clinton Administration as Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), where she was responsible for coordinating Administration efforts on budget and appropriations matters, as well as other legislative and management issues. She has also served as Assistant to the President, Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, and as Chief of Staff to Secretary of the Treasury, Robert E. Rubin. Before joining the federal government, Mathews worked in the private sector for McKinsey and Company, a management consulting firm.

Mathews holds degrees from both Harvard University and Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.  She is originally from Hinton, West Virginia.