The Gateses are among recipients named by the president in honoring “individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” The list includes honorees as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Robert De Niro, Ellen DeGeneres, Frank Gehry, Tom Hanks, Michael Jordan, Robert Redford, Bruce Springsteen, Vin Scully, Newt Minnow, Eloise Cobell and Diana Ross.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation manages an endowment fund worth nearly $40 billion. It has invested $36 billion in projects to fight polio, malaria and tuberculosis and global health and education initiatives.
"Our Global Policy & Advocacy Program has teams dedicated to advocacy, policy analysis and government relations, as well as strengthening philanthropic partnerships and the charitable sector in the United States and overseas. In addition to the policy and advocacy staff at our Seattle headquarters and in Washington, D.C., we have a European and Middle East office based in London, and country offices in China, India, Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Africa"
