BILL GATES PHILANTHROPIST EXTRAORDINAIRE

Speaking at a forum of leading malaria scientists and policymakers from around the world, Bill and Melinda Gates called for a global commitment to eradicating the disease, which kills more than one million people—most of them African children—every year. And they and the Gates Foundation have a right to chide world leaders too. They now head the largest Foundation in the world. Every year they contribute hundreds of millions to thousands of causes.

It seems like there was a lot more to Bill and Melinda Gates than just creating the world's largest software company. Many wealthy people become philanthropists as a PR move, but Bill and his wife get a genuine kick out of this type of work. Perhaps being the largest philanthropic organization in the world can be a source of great pride and can motivate one to push even harder. But even if their motives have a selfish side, it cannot be denied that many people are benefiting from their good work.

At a time when so many company bosses are tangled in legal messes arising from their own greed and hubris, it's refreshing to see someone using money and power to help countless others. The decision to leave Microsoft in the next couple of years and enmesh themselves in charitable work should not be overlooked by business schools, to make a point. It is possible to be rich, powerful, and sometimes mean and vicious in the business world, and still be the right role model to many who wish to be like them.

Gates often relates this message: “Plenty of us owe our livelihood to Microsoft, myself included. For people like me, having a career in technology is perhaps the most obvious benefit, but anywhere in the world a document is created, a Web page is viewed, or a chart is generated on a spreadsheet, Microsoft has had a direct or indirect effect. For that I am thankful.”

And we are thankful as well and for the decades ahead that we will benefit for causes around the world.