Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), previously branded as the 'William H. Gates Foundation', is a private foundation founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. It was launched in 2000, and is said to be the largest private foundation in the United States, holding $50.7 billion in assets. The primary aims of the foundation are, globally, to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, and, in the US, to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology. The foundation, based in Seattle, Washington, is controlled by its three trustees: Bill and Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett. Other
USS Thomas S. Gates the gold rays from the Presidential seal emphasize the significance of Gates's appointment, by President Gerald R. Ford, to head the U.S. Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China, and reflect Gates's contributions to the United States in that role, his last as a public servant. USS Thomas S. Gates USS "Thomas S. Gates" (CG-51) was a flight-I that was used by the United States Navy. The warship was named after Thomas S. Gates, Secretary of Defense in the last years of the Eisenhower Administration (1959–1961). In a break from normal naming conventions for the "Ticonderoga" class cruisers, "Thomas