Billionaire, Nerd, Savior, King

June 24, 2024
The Microsoft founder and philanthropist is a protean figure and thus an ideal prism through which to study society’s relationship with the billionaire class, according to this ruminative debut. New York Times finance editor Das chronicles well-known criticisms of Gates, including that he’s a ruthless monopolist who built his company on other people’s ideas; he’s a cold, rude boss with no people skills; he made inappropriate advances toward female employees and cheated on his wife, Melinda; and he hung out with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The book’s centerpiece is Das’s investigation of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which dominates private charitable efforts aimed at global public health, vaccines, and agricultural development. She interviews hundreds of former employees of the foundation, who make juicy assertions like that Gates’s operation was very much fixated on winning him a Nobel Prize. She also cites scholars and critics who accuse the foundation of throwing its weight around recklessly and making missteps with massive repercussions, ranging from supporting ineffective initiatives on telemedicine and charter schools to “replicat the power dynamics of colonialism” in developing countries. While this exposé intrigues, Das’s sociological framing—which revolves around how billionaires are perceived by the public and Gates’s PR management—never quite coheres. Still, it’s a perceptive and vibrant character portrait.

August 1, 2024
Secrets of a billionaire. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and published reports, Das, finance editor at theNew York Times, focuses on technology titan Bill Gates' manipulation of money and power "to hide in the shadows or shine on the stage" as he pursues his goals in business, politics, policy, and philanthropy. Central to her investigation is the "ever-widening inequality" blighting American society along with the culture's persistent veneration of billionaires. "The American dream," Das writes, "loosely holds that in a land of liberty, boundless opportunity, and free enterprise, individual merit, hard work, and a sprinkling of luck are the keys that unlock fortune." As Das chronicles Gates' evolution from Microsoft's nerdy creator to beneficent philanthropist, she shows that his education at private schools, strong family ties, and more than a sprinkling of luck were factors in his success. As a businessman, he was notoriously arrogant. His divorce from Melinda French Gates disclosed lifelong womanizing. More than 2,000 people depend on the Gates fortune for their livelihoods, Das notes, including "a small army of communications professionals" who work "to shape the public persona of Gates in a way to elevates his stature to benefit his foundation's goals and burnish his individual brand." Their task became especially onerous when Gates was linked with Jeffrey Epstein, whom he continued to see even after allegations against Epstein became widely known. "Why Gates hung around with Epstein may remain a head scratcher forever," Das admits. But that failure of judgment, as well as ruthless business practices and marital betrayal, have been glossed over. Today, she finds, "the world has a completely refurbished image of Gates, the jagged edges of the monopolist softened by the halo of the philanthropist." A sharply incisive portrait.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2024
Microsoft cofounder Gates is known as a tech wizard, uber-philanthropist, multibillionaire, and controversial influencer. Yet for all his acclaim, Gates remains poorly understood. Much of this is by design. He is notoriously private, his wealth cloaked behind impenetrable layers of financial holdings and the security around his many homes equal to that of a government black-ops installation. Yet Gates' carefully curated reputation has taken some hits of late. There was his bombshell divorce from his wife of 27 years, Melinda; allegations of workplace harassment; and his out-of-character relationship with sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. Das, the finance editor for the New York Times, widens the lens through which Gates' life and career is viewed. Each facet of his reputation is couched within a larger framework of capitalism, social justice, and entrepreneurship to question the outsized sway Gates and others of his rank hold over society writ large. Venturing deep into every aspect of Gates' professional and private spheres, Das offers a balanced, perceptive, and thought-provoking portrait of a man and his times.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 22, 2024

Das, the finance editor of the New York Times, considers Bill Gates both as a technology leader and as a billionaire in an age obsessed with the rich. Not just a maker of products, Gates presented himself as a national thought leader, shaping political and social agendas. Prepub Alert.

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