Melinda French Gates is resigning from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Melinda French Gates, one of the world’s preeminent philanthropists, said Monday she would resign as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that she has helped lead since 2000.

The foundation has made nearly $78 billion worth of grant payments in the nearly 25 years since its founding.

French Gates made the decision “after considerable reflection, based on how she wants to spend the next chapter of her philanthropy,” the foundation’s CEO, Mark Suzman, wrote in a statement Monday. “Melinda has new ideas about the role she wants to play in improving the lives of women and families in the U.S. and around the world. And, after a difficult few years watching women’s rights rolled back in the U.S. and around the world, she wants to use this next chapter to focus specifically on altering that trajectory.”