Earlier this year, the investments held by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation [3] in companies which had adverse health and environmental impacts were scrutinised [4] by the Los Angeles Times. The foundation, which aims to improve health and reduce extreme poverty, said [5] they would review their investment policy, but then subsequently retreated. The foundation has recently appointed Heidi Sinclair [6] 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 [7] in Europe and has previously worked in the technology practices of the PR firms of Hill & Knowlton [8], Ketchum [9] 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 [10] resembles the IBM of yore: the 800-lb. gorilla that sits anywhere it wants."