Program Advisory Panels Announced by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

SEATTLE -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced the formation of Program Advisory Panels to provide expert counsel and feedback to the organization’s three program areas. The Global Development and United States Programs are announcing their panel members today. The Global Health Program will announce its members in the coming weeks.

The panels are part of the foundation's ongoing effort to seek out the counsel of outside voices who can help increase the impact of its work. Each panel is comprised of experts with a wide range of experience and perspectives relevant to the foundation's core issues. Panel members will work directly with program presidents to help advise on strategies and evaluate results, but will not have a role in specific funding decisions.

"Listening to outside voices has always shaped our approach and increased our impact," said Patty Stonesifer, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "We are honored that these distinguished men and women have agreed to be critical partners in our efforts, offer new ideas and suggestions on how we can improve, deepen, and accelerate our existing program work." 

The Advisory Panels will function for an initial period of three years, at which time the foundation and panel members will evaluate next steps. Each panel will meet twice a year and members will be available to provide advice to the program presidents on strategic issues. The chair will moderate panel meetings and work with the president to develop meeting agendas and post-meeting reports for the foundation's CEO and trustees. Sylvia Mathews Burwell is the president of the Global Development Program and Allan Golston is the president of the United States Program.

Global Development Program Advisory Panel members include:

• 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