Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and a few more of the world’s richest people held a secret meeting in New York on May 5 to discuss how they could use philanthropy to shape the world in the midst of a tattered global economy.
Somehow all of these financial heavyweights were able to slip into Rockefeller University on Manhattan’s Upper East Side unnoticed by the throngs of media that patrol the New York City, the IrishCentral.com and Chronicle of Philanthropy report.
The meeting was called by Buffet and Gates. In their letter of invitation, Gates, Buffett and Rockefeller cited the worldwide recession and the urgent need to plan for the future, according to the Irish Times. Some of the other notable names on the guest list included Ted Turner, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, George Soros and David Rockefeller Jr.
Each of the billionaires were allotted 15 minutes to lay out plans for how their money could make a difference. One of the attendees said Gates was the most impressive, that Oprah didn’t have a lot of ideas and Ted Turner was the most outspoken.
All told, the collection of rich people have committed a total of more than $72.5 billion to charitable causes since 1996, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
