Gates Foundation Names Carolyn Ainslie as Chief Financial Officer

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SEATTLE, July 5, 2018 — The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced that Carolyn Ainslie has been named chief financial officer, effective October 1, 2018. Currently, Ainslie is Vice President for Finance and Treasurer at Princeton University where she serves as the chief financial officer, responsible for the central financial functions of the University.

“We are very pleased that Carolyn will join the foundation as our CFO,” said Sue Desmond-Hellmann, chief executive officer of the foundation. “Her leadership and deep experience well position Carolyn to help ensure the foundation’s endowment is invested wisely and boldly in service of the people who need it most.”

In her new position, Ainslie will lead the finance and accounting, financial planning and analysis, assurance and risk management, and program-related investments teams. This is both a strategic and operational leadership role responsible for maximizing impact across the foundation’s portfolio of programmatic investments in global health, global development, and education.

“I am honored to join the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and do my part to help people around the world have productive and healthy lives,” said Ainslie. “I am grateful for my years at Princeton and Cornell where I embraced the value of lifelong learning and the importance of serving others, and look forward to building on that with the foundation.”

Ainslie has served as Princeton University’s vice president and CFO for the last 10 years and before that, was vice president for Planning and Budget at Cornell University until 2008. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Bucknell University and MBA from the University of Rochester.

About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.

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