Investment Committee
The Investment Committee (IC) is comprised of representatives from throughout the foundation, including the CFO and General Counsel, as well as external experts from numerous fields. The Investment Committee is chaired by Vidya Vasu-Devan, Director of the Strategic Investment Fund.
The IC is responsible for providing review, input, recommendation for approval, and ongoing oversight of all PRIs. Specifically, the Investment Committee reviews Concept Notes to decide whether to proceed with diligence and negotiations on a particular investment and Investment Memos to determine recommendation to the foundation CEO/Co-Chairs for approval.
Vidya Vasu-Devan (Chair)
Vidya leads the Gates Foundation’s $2.5bn Strategic Investment Fund (“SIF”) and chairs the SIF Investment Committee. Since 2012, Vidya has worked across sectors and geographies to source, structure, and manage venture capital, debt, and guarantee investments. SIF supports companies that have a critical role to play in achieving the foundation’s ambitious goals in global health and poverty alleviation and U.S. education and economic mobility. Vidya leads SIF’s investment efforts in the vaccines/biologics sector and has led and worked on investments in Achaogen (AKAO), AgBiome, Arsanis (ASNS), Biological E, BioNTech (BNTX), Charter School Growth Fund, Civic Builders, Curevac (CVAC), Just Biotherapeutics (acq. by Evotec), M-KOPA, Merck, and Sanofi.
Prior to joining the foundation, Vidya was an investment professional in the public markets proprietary hedge fund of Goldman Sachs (GSPS) where she led the healthcare portfolio and also invested in financial institutions. Prior to that, Vidya worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs, advising and executing on innovative structured finance transactions for financial institution clients.
Vidya received an MBA and a certificate in Public Management and Social Innovation from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She also holds a BA in Astrophysics with concentrations in Mathematics and Economics from Columbia University.
Carolyn Ainslie
Carolyn Ainslie, Chief Financial Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, oversees finance and accounting, financial planning and analysis, risk and assurance, partner organizational effectiveness, the strategic investment fund, and several special initiatives. This is both a strategic and operational leadership role, responsible for maximizing impact across the foundation’s portfolio of programmatic investments in global health, global development, and education.
Prior to the foundation in 2018, Carolyn worked for 10 years as Princeton University’s Vice President for Finance and Treasurer where she was responsible for the central financial functions of the University and as a member of the President’s senior staff, served as a key partner on strategic university initiatives. She also spent 10 years as the Vice President for Planning and Budget at Cornell University.
Carolyn holds a master’s in business administration in finance from the University of Rochester and bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University.
Patrick Heron
Patrick is a Managing Partner of Frazier’s Life Sciences team. He joined the firm in 1999 and opened Frazier’s Menlo Park office in 2003. Throughout his 15 years as a Managing Partner, Patrick has led or co-led investments across 30 companies. Patrick has successfully partnered with entrepreneurs across a range of company types and stages, from early-stage drug discovery companies to >$100M revenue commercial-stage companies.
He currently serves on the boards of Arcutis (NASDAQ: ARQT), Imago BioSciences, Iterum Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ITRM), Mirum Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MIRM), Passage Bio (NASDAQ: PASG), ScoutBio, SutroVax, and the Board Executive Committee for LifeMoves, an organization focused on providing solutions to homelessness in Silicon Valley.
He holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate and Morehead Scholar. Patrick received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School
Tracia Luh
Tracia Luh, director and program chief financial officer of global health, leads the team that provides financial and strategic planning and analytical support across the foundation’s work in global health.
Tracia joined the foundation in 2016 as program chief financial officer of U.S. Program, the foundation’s education division. Prior to the foundation, Tracia was CFO of Andela, a talent accelerator funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, that trains software developers in Africa and places them with leading global companies. She also was CFO and SVP of Corporate Development at Newsweek, a division of Graham Holdings/Washington Post, where she was hired to lead a financial review of strategic alternatives that culminated in a sale of the division. Between 2000-2009, she held senior financial positions at ESPN/Disney, assessing operating performance and evaluating strategic transactions and investments. She began her career in the Global Fixed Income departments of Merrill Lynch and Chase/JP Morgan, analyzing companies and publishing investment recommendations.
Tracia holds a bachelor’s degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She serves on the Board of YMCA Greater Seattle, which manages the thirteen Seattle-area branches, and Lincoln Center Education, which provides arts education programs to under-served schools and communities.
Keith Matthews
In his capacity as Director, Legal, Keith primarily oversees legal work related to the foundation’s Global Development division. Keith also leads the legal team’s support of PRI activities.
Prior to joining the foundation, Keith served as Counsel at the law firm O’Melveny & Myers, where his practice focused on representing venture capital funds and private equity funds in connection with growth equity and venture capital investments, mergers and acquisitions and general corporate matters. While at the firm, Keith was seconded to the African Development Bank in Tunisia, where he represented the AfDB in public and private financings. Prior to joining O’Melveny & Myers, Keith was a Senior Consultant with Deloitte Consulting Group, where he focused on restructurings and mergers and acquisitions, and an Associate with the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, where he focused on general corporate matters and financings and worked in both the Philadelphia and Singapore offices of the firm. Prior to law school, Keith worked at Chemical Bank (now known as JPMorgan Chase), where he served as an analyst and a middle market loan officer.
Keith received his B.S. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and J.D. from the University of Michigan
Jamie Morris
Jamie is the divisional chief financial officer for both Global Development and Global Growth & Opportunity at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Jamie’s primary responsibilities include helping develop and execute resource plans for foundation strategies and providing analytic and business and operational support to support both divisions. Jamie leads the team of business and finance professionals who conduct due diligence on foundation partners and charitable investments, working alongside our program staff and external partners to structure and manage our program investment portfolios. She also sits on both foundation’s Investment Committee as well as Innovative Finance Committee.
Jamie joined the foundation in 2010 in a similar role for the US Program division. Prior to joining the foundation, she worked at Goldman Sachs in its investment banking division.
Jamie holds her MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame.
Nimit Shah
Nimit Shah has 20 years of relevant investment and advisory experience. He joined Helios in 2008, and has been involved with a number of private equity and private credit investments including Vivo Energy, GB Foods Africa, Solevo, Interswitch, TPay, Wananchi, Nova Pioneer, Afgri, Acorn, Continental Outdoor, OVH Energy and Africell.
Prior to joining Helios, Mr. Shah was a Director within the Financial Sponsors Group at Lehman Brothers in London. His experience there spanned M&A advisory, leveraged finance and ECM in Europe and the US. He started his career as a strategy consultant at Arthur D Little where his focus areas were corporate finance and telecommunications.
Mr. Shah also sits on the Board of Directors of Equimundo (a US based non-profit organization targeting gender equality) and Advisory Board of Scanning Pens (a UK based EdTech business).
Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, he completed his high school education at Eton College in the UK; he has an MA in Economics and Management from Oxford University and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Shah, a Kenyan and British national, speaks Swahili, Gujarati and Hindi.
Sarah Stein
Sarah Stein is a Managing Partner at Hall Capital Partners LLC an independent investment advisor that manages multi-asset class investment portfolios for families, individuals and institutions. Her prior experience includes working in the Investment Management Division at Goldman Sachs & Co., the Fisher Family Foundation, and teaching English in Guangzhou, China.
Ms. Stein serves on the Princeton Endowment (PRINCO) Board and the San Francisco Day School Board. She also serves on the Board of Directors and Investment Committee of the Rosenberg Foundation. She previously served as a Trustee of Princeton University, the Breakthrough Collaborative, KIPP Bayview Academy, and the San Francisco Foundation.
Ms. Stein graduated cum laude from Princeton University with an A.B. in History. She also earned an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and an M.A. from the Stanford School of Education.
Chris Wilson, MDM
Currently a consultant and senior advisor, Dr. Christopher B. Wilson formerly served as Director of Discovery & Translational Sciences at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from 2010-2016. Prior to joining the Gates Foundation, he was a member of the faculty at the University of Washington from 1979-2009, where he served as head of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Immunology and Rheumatology, Department of Pediatrics from 1989-1999, then as Chairman of the Department of Immunology and head of the graduate program in immunology from 1999-2009.
Wilson has served on the World Health Organization Scientific Advisory Group for the Blueprint on Research & Development Preparedness, the Advisory Committee to the Director, US National Institutes of Health and the Advisory Councils of the US National Institute of Allergy & Infections Diseases and the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Wilson received a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Irvine and a medical degree from UCLA. He trained in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital /Harvard Medical School, served in the US Public Health Service, and then was a post-doctoral fellow in infectious diseases while performing immunology research at Stanford University before joining the faculty of the University of Washington.