Executive Producer
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Nati Harnik / AP Bill Gates and Warren Buffett share a laugh while answering questions from students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's College of Business Administration, in Lincoln, Neb., in 2005. |
The agenda wasn't world domination. It was making philanthropy more effective.
Among the other well-known, and very wealthy names, attending the meeting on May 5 in New York City: Michael Bloomberg, Peter Peterson, George Soros, Ted Turner, and Oprah Winfrey.
The private meeting was not announced before-hand, or discussed publicly afterward, until a report on IrishCentral.com earlier this week.
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AP Oprah Winfrey |
In The New York Times City Room blog, A.G. Sulzberger points out it "took weeks before anyone noticed" that some of "America's more prominent and successful capitalists managed to meet this month at Rockefeller University on the Upper East Side to discuss philanthropy."
While some headlines around the web have continued to call it a "secret" meeting, one of the few participants speaking on the record downplays that aspect.
Former Gates Foundation Chief Executive Patty Stonesifer tells the Seattle News:
"It wasn't secret. It was meant to be a gathering among friends and colleagues. It was something folks have been discussing for a long time. Bill and Warren hoped to do this occasionally. They sent out an invite and people came... This was about philanthropy and this group sharing their passions their interests. They each learned from each other about what could really make a difference."
