David i dont consider myself a journalist and nobody would consider myself a journalist. I began to take on the life of being an interviewer even though i have a day job of running a private equity firm. How do you define leadership . What is it that makes somebody tick . For about 20 years or so, youve been the wealthiest man in the world. But because youve given away so much money recently, jeff bezos became wealthier. Do you think if you had stayed in college and gotten your College Degree [laughter] david i mean, you dont feel inadequate now because youre the second wealthiest man in the world. Is that right . Bill no, i mean t a sign that i havent given the money away fast enough to drop out of the top 10 and the markets been strong. [applause] david the market has been strong. Microsoft is up 35 this year. So to what do you attribute that . Bill the company is doing super well. We have a great c. E. O. The whole dream of the importance of software has really come true. The five most valuable companies in the world are these Technology Companies. Microsoft, you know, has a good share of that. I get to spend about a sixth of my time now over at microsoft. David so recently, you said that the biggest mistake youve made professionally was that microsoft had the android technology. Why was that the biggest mistake . Bill when youre in a field and we were in the field of doing operating systems for personal computers we knew the mobile phone would be very popular. And so were doing what was called windows mobile. We missed being the dominant mobile operating system by a very tiny amount. We were distracted during the iron and trust crowd and weve been assigned the best people to do the work. So its the biggest mistake i made in terms of something that was clearly within our skill set. We were clearly the company that should have achieved that. David your areas are catered to education and health care in the least wealthy parts of the world. Recently, you did so make another effort not through your foundation but through Breakthrough Energy to try to do something about Climate Change. Why are you so worried about Climate Change . Bill well, the Climate Change is a probable that gets problem that gets worse every year and yet what you have to do is very dramatic and in reshaping the entire physical economy that well. So its a very complex problem and its a problem that its where i see my value at it which is looking at something through the lens of innovation, not just the righthand part but the creation r d part but the creation of products and helping educate people like what are the sources of these Greenhouse Gases and how do you get on a path of innovation so that you can get Global Adoption and actually bring emission downs dramatically . David because thats part of your foundation or are you doing this outside of your foundation . Bill ok. The part where you mitigate and you help the poor countries with better seeds and better policies, partly through development aid, that is through the foundation, that mitigation part. The part where you invent new ways of making fuels, electricity, cement, that is done directly by me with a lot of investments, including the funds that you mentioned, this socalled Breakthrough Energy ventures is a fund that i assembled a group of 22 people to put money into companies that are trying to commercialize the breakthroughs. David but thats a fund of 1 billion. Bill right. David you put youin 200 million. Can 1 billion make that much of a difference . Bill 1 billion, its actually been very catalytic. They have 20 investments. Late next year, well probably raise another 12 billion to 1. 5 billion. His is all about innovation. So if you have to make steel with no emission, that steel would cost you four times what steel does today. Your electric bill would more than double if we just take the technology we have today. So, yes, supporting those companies and drawing other investors in, Breakthrough Energy has gotten a lot of investors. Green energy didnt go well at the first round and the field that might evaporate some because they come in and be able to bring a depth of understanding and not only theyve been able to invest, the first 1 billion will be fully committed next year but weve got other investors. And the technology, they only invest in companies who have a chance of reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions by a half a percent each company. And, you know, they found 20 and im sure theyll find another 20. David im the smallest investor in that fund. So am i going to get my money back and make a return . What will you say . Bill i would say its of the things you invest in, its probably one of the higher risk things. It is being done on a commercial basis and were like throw have a few significant successes. So its not philanthropic in the sense that you can deduct it, but [laughter] bill but the time frame of the return and the risking of returns are fairly high. But we do expect to make a profit out of that fund. David so why do you think some people do not believe that there is such a thing called Climate Change . What is propelling them to say theres no Climate Change . Is it Scientific Evidence or some other political reason . I wont mention anybody but there are some people who dont think there is Climate Change. Bill well, you know, they must not have taken enough science courses or something, i dont know. [laughter] [applause] bill the climate is a complex issue. And, you know, just understanding how you do the abatement requires a lot of indepth study. In the United States, its become somewhat of a partisan issue, which is unforge unfortunate. Might make it harder to achieve the type of agreements we need here in the United States. But, you know, we have two problems. We have the people who deny climate and then we have the people who think its easy to solve. And we need to help educate both of those groups. David but in the history of human civilization, is there any evidence that people will do things that will affect their great, great grandchildren but they wont see the benefit from . Bill to the United States actually of all governments has been willing to take on very difficult problems like cancer and make gigantic investments knowing that the real payoff would be many decades down the road. So when that was first being pushed, you know, people are saying hey, this is important. Climate change is like that where youve got to take a longterm perspective. And government at its best is when its taking that longterm perspective and funding the basic r d and the policies that lead to scaled deployment. David you worry that theres too much power and too much data in the hands of these Technology Companies. Bill well, technologys become so central that government has to think. Ok, what does that mean about elections . What does it mean about bullying . David now a large part of the carbon is caused by the electricity grid which is about 25 or so. Bill exactly. David so 24 it comes from agriculture and forestry. Why is that causing such a big increase in carbon . Bill the when you clear land, youre taking in the carbon thats stored say in the trees or plants and youre releasing all of that like rning the land, say in indonesia for palm oil plantations. Another thing is cows and other zrsh eating species has a a dye digestion system that emits methane and methane is a very powerful Greenhouse Gas. And so cows alone account for bout 6 of global emissions. And we need to change david cows . Bill yeah, just cows alone. David how are we going to do that . Bill well, of all the categories, the one that has gone better than i would have expected five years ago is this work to make whats called artificial meat. And so you have people like impossible or beyond meat, both of which i invested in david do youite as well or do you like it . Bill absolutely. You can go to burger king and buy the impossible burger. David is it healthier for you or healthier for the atmosphere . Healthier inightly terms of cholesterol. Animal cruel nation, neuer management and the pressure that Meat Consumption puts on land use. David what about electric cars . Do you think thats a solution . Bill it absolutely if you look at the transport sector david thats about 14 . Bill passenger cars with about another factor of two to three in battery improvement which is possible, the mainstream for passenger cars can become electric though you have to make that transition. Youve got scale it up. Youve got to make sure that electricity is zero emission. But for trucks and planes, theres almost no chance the batteries will be good enough. And to there, youll still need to create liquid fuels either with lickety electricity or biofuels some way. Fuels are amazing. The Energy Density of gasoline is 30 times the energy of dense battery that we can make. So if you look at a container chef that crosses the ship that crosses the ocean, the fuel 30 efficient would be that 9 of the weight youre carrying would be the battery instead of the cargo. So trucks and planes and boats electrify indication is unlikely the work in those cases. So we need ways of making fuels that are zero carbon. David when you talk to heads of state about this, do they roll their eyes and say were happy too meet you. Can i have a selly with you and so forth . But do they really do anything . What are you trying to get heads of states to do . Bill well in the paris climate conference, one of the things that was missing was the focus on r d. And so actually, france said yes, we want that to be for the real issue t a a that would be discussed. So missions for evasion, that idea of the commitment of over 30 governments to double their energy r d was a significant milestone that came out of that conference. In order to get that commitment, i had to make a commitment that there would be Breakthrough Energy that would take things out of those labs and help them get into the marketplace. Theres been some progress. Climate is complicated enough that, you know, you dont want you want a broad set of people in the government to understand the complexities. And in terms of the r d work that needs to be done, unless the u. S. Is deeply engaged, its unlikely to happen because so much of the worlds capacity to do that innovation is here in the United States. David so the United States pulled out more or less of the paris accord. Is that of concern to you and do you think this is going to hurt the effort to change climate around the world . Ill yeah, its a huge backwards. Even though you meet all the commitment in the climate accord, youre way over two degrees of warming and most countries are behind the commitments they made. Those commitments were a set of reductions where you compare your 20, 30 emissions to your 2005 emissions. David right. Bill and theres a little bit of about that thats easy. The ship of coal of natural gas is a lot of that and the world is falling short and to have people like the United States say ok, thats even thats not important, it just shows how daunting this is going to be. Theres no way well get there without the u. S. Coming back in a strong way. David do you think if you met with president trump, you could convince him on paris to maybe get back in or is that is beyond your capabilities to do that . Bill someone else could do that. [laughter] david all right. Now the Largest Companies in the world in the United States are Technology Companies, apple, facebook, google, microsoft, and so forth. Do you worry that theres too much power and too much data in the hands of these Technology Companies and are you surprisesed that the government hasnt done something more than they do today about this . Bill well technologys become so central that government has to think ok what, does that mean about elections . What does it mine about bullying . What does it mean about wiretapping authorities that led to find out whats going on financially or, you know, drug Money Laundering and things like that. So yes, the government needs to get involved. I for the earlier of microsoft said to people that i didnt have an office in washington, d. C. And eventually i came to regret that statement. Because it was kind of almost like taunting washington, d. C. And so now the Technology Companies, partly because of the lesson of microsoft, of course, you know, their could have seen that lesson through at t or i. B. M. Or kodak, theyre very engaged. There will be more regulation of the tech sector, things like privacy, im sure theyll and there should be at some point Better Regulation that relates to that. The fact that now, this is the way people consume media and it has really brought it into a realm that we need to shape it so that the benefits outweigh the negatives. David you have three children. Seem to be well adjusted and youve kept them out of the newspapers and so forth. How do you avoid spoiling kids like that . Bill i think thats a huge problem. David so if you were 20 years old today and you wanted to start a new company, drop out of harvard what, company or what area would you want to start it in . Bill well this is a great time to be doing innovation there are lots of things in biology that are very interesting. There are lots of things in energy that are very interesting. Given my background, i would start an a. I. Company that whose goal would be to teach computers how to read so that they can absorb and understand all the written knowledge of the world. Thats an area where a. I. Has yet to make a progress. David so are you worried about the power of a. I. To disrupt our civilization that put people out of work and those kinds of things . Bill the increased productivity that will come from a. I. Will create dilemmaas about what should people do with that extra ime. And youve got to consider that a good thing even though it would be an interesting set of adjustments that has to take place. David the two most you werent issues are health in the less developed areas and how did you pick those two . And have you made progress on either of those two . Bill global help is our biggest area. And there, the progress has been unbelievable, not just because of our work, but our partners that include the u. S. Government donor on the european who is have really stepped up on these health issues. One of the metrics on the importance is the number of children in the world who die before the age of 5. When we got started in the year 2000 that, was over 10 million a year. Now its about five million a year. And so, you know, its just mindblowing and people arent that as aware of issues like them to be. Those deaths, because of getting out vaccines and understanding a bit more about nutrition, those deaths have been cut in half. Now the goal is to cut them in half again by 2030. Our u. S. Education work that is not just k through 12 but include higher ed as well, theyre the key metrics dropout tes, math and verbal achievement, those metrics have moved essentially not at all. And even as the u. S. Is spending more resources on education. We spend by far more than any, any country in the world and yet our results are quite a bit worse than almost all of the other rich countries and even some middleincome countries even vietnam now is passing us in terms of their math results. Fillsre, the fields it a hole in our work. David so today, people come to you all the time for money, i assume. Everywhere you go, people say by the way, i have this thing you should invest in. I have a couple myself. I will mention later. No, just kidding. So how do you resist if do you have some person who says no for you . Or how do you do that . Bill like many people. David many people say to. Bill once you pick what you care about, if somebody has something that can make a difference in global help, were super interested. And we have a staff of 1,500 people and if its to do a global health, some of those people will come out and talk through with you whether your innovation is and how we can partner with you on that. So thats clearly in our area. If its something that can substantial improved k through 12 education, then were going to be very interested in it. If people are asking outside of easy to things, fortunately, you can say no because focus is key. The philanthropy. David so people have recognized over the years that raising children is difficult. Jackie kennedy said if you messed up raising children, nothing matters. You have three children. Seem to be well adjusted and youve kept them out of newspapers and so forth. How do you avoid spoiling kids like that . Bill i think thats a huge problem. Obviously, our kids had benefited from having a great education and their opportunity to travel. So theyre very lucky in that sense. Making sure that the visibility or the way people treat them is not unnatural. There are some challenges that come with that. So far, theyve handled it well. Melinda is the one who deserves any or certainly almost all the credit for the kids so far doing very well. You know, our kids, weve said to them that, you know, the money is going the foundation and so they dont think of themselves as sort of arrowhead accuratic. David so what do they say . They dont ask for some . Bill theyll get a little bit. David how much money has your Foundation Given away today . Bill about 40 billion. Were up to giving 6 billion a year. David so finally, if people are watching and they say i want to do something about Climate Change but im just one person. What can any average person do to have some impact on Climate Change in your view . Bill well certainly, they can ake things like these new Meat Products or how they buy electric si and they can help drive up the scale of the Green Solutions the most important thing at this stage is their political voice. Theres going to be a need to put substantial resources into this effort. And, you know, well need a bipartisan solution and to send the right signal to the market, you actually dont if you just win one year and then it gets repealed, that doesnt help at all. The key is let people see the policies will be over the next 30 years on a consistent basis. And that means its a much higher bar than just a onetime victory. From the couldnt be prouders to the wait did we just winners. Everyone uses their phone differently. Thats why Xfinity Mobile lets you design your own data. Now you can share it between lines. Mix with unlimited, and switch it up at anytime so you only pay for what you need. Its a different kind of Wireless Network designed to save you money. Save up to 400 a year on your wireless bill. Plus get 250 back when you buy an eligible phone. Call, click, or visit a store today. Francine Christine Lagarde has shattered the Glass Ceiling multiple times over and becoming frances economy master, she made history as the first woman to serve as a finance chief of the g7 nation shes also the first woman to heed the International Monetary fund and is now the first woman to be elected president of the European Central bank. She is one of the three most powerful women of the planet. I sat down with Christine Lagarde in new york for this edition of leaders with lacqua a monthef