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Socially responsible investment

Gates Foundation defends investment record

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has refused to be reconsider its investment-making decisions despite LA Times (7 January) accusations that the charitable foundation has holdings in companies that have failed tests on social responsibility.

For instance, the newspaper accused the Gates Foundation of investing $423m in companies – including Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil – responsibility for most of the flaring that takes place in the Niger Delta. The Times also suggested the Gates Foundation has major holdings in some of the world’s other major polluters and pharmaceutical companies that price drugs beyond the reach of AIDS patients the Foundation is trying to treat.

Cheryl Scott, the Foundation’s chief operating officer, said it is the Foundation’s position to focus on grant making rather than evaluating companies in this way.

The intention of the Foundation, she said, is to choose a limited set of issues and develop expertise in them: these issues include AIDS, malaria, extreme poverty and the poor state of US high schools. The Foundation is a passive investor, she said, because it wants to concentrate on these core issues and does not wish to duplicate the role of other organisations already focusing on areas like environmental legislation.

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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

February, 2007

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