Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supported a broad range of social, health, and education developments including the establishment of the Gates Cambridge Scholarships at Cambridge University. In 1994, the foundation was formed as the William H. Gates Foundation. During the foundation's following years, funding grew to $2 billion. On June 15, 2006, Gates announced his plans to transition out of a day-to-day role with Microsoft, effective July 31, 2008, to allow him to devote more time to working with the foundation. In 2005, Bill and Melinda Gates, along with the musician Bono, were named by "Time" as Persons of the Year 2005 for their outstanding
The Road Ahead (Bill Gates book) a "very expensive marketing technique" where a book is placed on sale in multiple countries on the same day (November 24, in this case), giving the book "an almost sure shot at the No. 1 spot on best-seller lists." "The Road Ahead" got a first printing of 850,000 books in North America and several hundred thousand overseas. It was early enough in the history of the World Wide Web that "The New York Times" thought it newsworthy to report that Gates was going to "conduct on-line forums to promote the book" and Penguin had created a "Bill Gates web site