I am sitting on a bar stool. On the other side of a round metal table, the world’s second richest man is sipping a Diet Coke, eating french fries with his fingers and explaining the history of the polio vaccine. Bill Gates would still be the richest man in the world, if he didn’t keep giving his money away. Now, after donating $28bn to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — which funds health, development and educational causes — he is down to his last $54bn. For a man who has made such an incredible fortune, Gates seems to have modest tastes. We meet at his office in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and walk across the road to the Beach Café in the Woodmark, a smart local hotel.

 

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