Interview with William H. Gates*

President, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

March, 2002

Yeeli Hua Zheng:  What is the overall mission of the Foundation?

Mr. Gates: The Foundation's overall mission is somewhat diverse. The main thing which
we devote our funds to and personnel to is our global health program. We also have
significant activities in the work of education in the United States. We do have an important
activity to supply technology, computers to libraries in the United States. There is a small
part we do, that  is good citizenship philanthropy here in the Pacific Rim Northwest. But the
main thing is the global health program.

Yeeli Hua Zheng: It is said that it was your idea to put your son's wealth to work on global health. How did you come up with this idea?

Mr. Gates: That isn't quite correct. It was not my idea. It was his and his wife's concern after having read about diseases in the poor
world, which are taking many many lives; the same diseases, which are not serious at all in this country or even have been completely
eradicated. He and she seeing this felt that the disparity was so inequitable that perhaps this is something that they should devote
some of their resources to correct it. They did ask me to look into it and see what sorts of things they might do. Of course, I was delighted
to become a party to that effort. But it really did originate with them.

Yeeli Hua Zheng: So you think it is an accidental chance that struck them so much that they began to work on this, or do you think there
were more profound reasons?

Mr. Gates: I think the actual trigger is having read an article in the New York Times. But that alone would not be enough. He and she
have traveled a good deal and have seen conditions in other places, which are so much worse than they are here, particularly in terms of
health. This article, I think, was just sort of the last straw to turn them in the direction of thinking about whether they could contribute
something to the problem. It is a simple matter of humanitarian concern. I think it is uncomfortable for many of us to live in a world where
there is such egregious disparity. That is just simple health conditions where so many people died of things in one part of the world…….
It is just a question of human equity.

Yeeli Hua Zheng:  There is a Chinese saying which is equivalent to the English phrase "like father, like son"; your son, like you, has a
public heart and a strong sense of social responsibility. What other qualities did your son inherit from you?

Mr. Gates: I think the first thing needed to be said is that he had really a wonderful woman for a mother, and much, perhaps most of what
he is, is the consequence of having been her son as well as my son. I hesitate to speculate about what part of the person he is comes
from being either his mother's son or mine. At a very young age, he was quite an independent person and made up his own mind about
things, did his own reading and spontaneous writing. He was a very mature person at an early age. So much of what he is is the
consequence of his own thinking, reading and interpretation of the world. I hesitate to describe any particular characteristics to any
inheritance. There are some good things he does, which, of course, I would love to take credit for. I am not sure if that is fair.

Yeeli Hua Zheng:  What are you most proud of about your son?

Mr. Gates: His general confidence, perhaps, is the thing, to be the first on that list. He is a very confident person. He is bright and
insightful about things. He works very hard. Fortunately, he is the kind of person whose life experiences have taught him good judgment.
I exult in all of these things. I also exult in the fact that he has a wonderful sense of humor. He likes to laugh and he makes other people
laugh. I appreciate that.

Yeeli Hua Zheng:  In Bill's growing years, what advice or suggestions did you give him most frequently?

Mr. Gates: I am not sure I can really respond to that. It is not as if when he was very young we spent a lot of time giving him advice. I
spoke like any parents; we were busy with disciplining him about one thing or another, you know, "put your clothes away", "brush your
teeth". To be honest with you, I can not think of a situation in which I was giving any thing that I would really characterize as advice. Again I
think he was quite an independent person at a young age. There were not a lot of occasions for giving him advice. Later in business,
there were some rare occasions when he and I talked about things he was confronted with. But those were really incidental, and not
general advice, that kind of situation.

Yeeli Hua Zheng:  What greater hopes do you have for your son?

Mr. Gates: I think at this point, it is a matter of hope that he is able to find a way to have a more relaxing life, one in which he is not so
committed all the time, to having to be in places or do things that are a requirement of the business he is still a significant factor  in the
management of.  My hope would be that the time would come when he could function in a more leisurely way than what he has to do
today.

Yeeli Hua Zheng:  What social impact will the Foundation's engagement bring about?.

Mr. Gates: Interestingly, perhaps the largest impact we will have, I would say, hopefully, is to bring more resources from others to bear
on this problem. As large as we are, if it were entirely up to us, the rate of progress would be very slow indeed. As the problems as
anybody thinks about it for a minute knows, they are very, very large and they will take enormous resources to deal with. Happily, there is
already considerable evidence that there is increasing sensitivity, increasing interest and increasing support for making efforts and
taking resources that are available to the poor world to deal with this inequity. In an announcement a month ago or so by our own country
a very substantial increase in its commitment to aid to poor countries was described. This is very encouraging thing. I am not
suggesting that we are responsible for that, but I would go so far to say that I think the current increased interest and increased support
in that subject is at least in part a function of our activities. To some extent, we have brought people's mind to this problem.  

* Broadcast on Hong Kong Cable TV


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