Gates Foundation’s Education Leader Resigns
November 3, 2006 | Read Time: 1 minute
Tom Vander Ark, executive director of education programs at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will step down from his position by the end of this year, reports The Seattle Times.
After he leaves the executive-director post, Mr. Vander Ark will temporarily stay on as a senior fellow within the foundation. He said he has no specific plans for what he will do next.
Under Mr. Vander Ark’s seven-year leadership, the foundation gave $3-billion for programs to increase high school graduation rates and for college scholarships.
“I don’t think anybody ought to run a big grant program forever,” Mr. Vander Ark told the newspaper. “You start to lose touch with the field, and you confuse grantee interest with acceptance of your ideas. I think it’s healthy to go back into the field where your ideas are market-tested.”
