Melinda French Gates will no longer give bulk of her wealth to Gates Foundation: report

Philanthropist Melinda French Gates will divide most of her wealth among multiple philanthropic organisations.

American philanthropist Melinda French Gates will no longer be giving a majority of her wealth to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that she founded with her ex-husband, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Instead, Melinda French Gates, 57, will divide most of her wealth among multiple philanthropic organisations, as part of her commitment to the Giving Pledge initiative.

French Gates and Gates had encouraged the rich to sign their Giving Pledge initiative to donate their wealth to charitable causes.

Bill Gates, 66, and French Gates, made the announcement of their divorce on Twitter in May last year. The divorce is among the most high-profile separations in recent times. They had, however, said they would keep working together at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the largest charitable foundations in the world.

The Gateses were married in 1994 in Hawaii. They met after she began working at Microsoft as a product manager in 1987.

Last month, the Gates Foundation said it will add four members to its board of trustees, a first for the Seattle-based philanthropic giant whose decision making has been guided by very few hands since its incorporation in 2000. The global charitable group said it would search for new trustees in July. Gates and French Gates will continue to have additional authority as co-chairs of the foundation. Critics have long argued the foundation, whose funding for the World Health Organization nearly matches that of the US government, has outsized influence and needs broader leadership.