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• Sylvia Mathews Burwell

  President, Global Development Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

   

   

  Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the Global Development Program, oversees the foundation’s efforts to help the world’s poorest people overcome hunger and poverty. Burwell leads Global Development’s major areas of grantmaking—Agricultural Development, Financial Services for the Poor, and Special Initiatives. Burwell also oversees policy and advocacy activities for the program. She joined the foundation in 2001 as executive vice president and served as chief operating officer and executive director from 2002 to April 2006.

  Before joining the foundation, Burwell served in the Clinton administration as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, assistant to the president, deputy chief of staff to the president, and chief of staff to former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin. Prior to her work in federal government, Burwell worked for McKinsey & Company, a management consulting firm, where she focused on consulting for financial institutions.

  Burwell is a graduate of Harvard University and is a Rhodes scholar. She serves on the board of directors for MetLife Inc. and the Council on Foreign Relations and is a member of the board of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. Burwell is also a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, the Trilateral Commission and the Nike Foundation Advisory Group. She hails from Hinton, West Va.

  
  

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