Spin Doctor for Gates Foundation

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Earlier this year, the investments held by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in companies which had adverse health and environmental impacts were scrutinised by the Los Angeles Times. The foundation, which aims to improve health and reduce extreme poverty, said they would review their investment policy, but then subsequently retreated. The foundation has recently appointed Heidi Sinclair to the newly created position of director of communications. Sinclair, who will take up the position in September, is currently president and CEO of PR firm Burson-Marsteller in Europe and has previously worked in the technology practices of the PR firms of Hill & Knowlton, Ketchum and Regis McKenna. She has also worked for software companies Lotus and Borland. The Seattle Times reports that when Sinclair worked for Borland in 1993 she told Time magazine that "Microsoft resembles the IBM of yore: the 800-lb. gorilla that sits anywhere it wants."