New Gates Chief Says No Major Course Changes in Store

Susan Desmond-Hellmann, who took office May 1 as chief executive officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, talks to The Seattle Times about bringing an outside perspective to leading the world’s wealthiest philanthropy and raising tough topics with her new bosses.

Dr. Desmond-Hellmann, a physician and former chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco, is the first person from outside Microsoft to serve as Gates’ CEO. She said she does not plan any major course changes from the foundation’s “awesome” strategies, but will put a priority on ensuring that its investments in new vaccines and other solutions to global problems move beyond research and pilot projects to achieve a broad impact.

“The best public health now starts to think about civil society: water, sanitation, city planning, climate, the economy, mobility,” she said.

Dr. Desmond-Hellman said she brought up criticisms of the foundation when she was interviewed for the position by Mr. and Ms. Gates to test “what it would be like to have a conversation about a difficult issue.” She said arriving from outside the organization means that “I find myself asking a lot of questions, and I think that’s an asset.”

Read a Chronicle of Philanthropy profile of Ms. Desmond-Hellman.