CEO Letter

Every year, millions of people die – and millions more suffer – from causes we know how to prevent. So why do these problems persist? Often, it’s because of a lack of political will or a shortage of resources, but in many other instances, there is a deeper issue: The problems are so common and longstanding that they are largely dismissed or ignored.

Mike’s annual letter covers a pair of overlooked issues that are the focus of new initiatives we’re launching: lead poisoning and vision impairment. But those are just two examples of our efforts to take on solvable problems that too often go overlooked and unaddressed.

From our earliest days, Bloomberg Philanthropies has been committed to tackling issues that others have neglected, and there is no better example than tobacco control. Back in 2007, tobacco was a top global killer, and tobacco-related deaths were projected to climb to 10 million per year by 2030. Yet despite that staggering toll, the issue received only a fraction of the attention and resources directed toward other global health challenges. In New York City, the Bloomberg administration had pioneered a groundbreaking smoke-free law – but globally, only 10 countries had put similar protections in place.

That led us to jump in with a series of major investments in global tobacco control. We’re now nearly 20 years into this work, and we’ve seen remarkable progress. Today, 79 countries have smoke-free laws in place. Global cigarette sales per capita have fallen by more than 25 percent since 2007. And our efforts are saving an estimated 35.2 million lives. The extent of that progress hit home in June 2025, when we hosted hundreds of our partners at the World Conference on Tobacco Control in Dublin, Ireland, and recognized outstanding examples of leadership on the issue. Each of those examples was inspiring to hear – but just as powerful was our partners’ shared determination to go even further.

That same sense of determination also drives our work on another frequently overlooked crisis that affects billions: the degradation of our ocean. Over three billion people depend on marine resources for food and livelihoods, yet we’re losing marine biodiversity at unprecedented rates, and ocean temperatures are rising faster than ever recorded.

Only a few weeks before the tobacco control conference, we joined our ocean partners at the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France, to focus attention on the issue. Since 2014, Bloomberg Philanthropies has helped to secure dozens of new marine protected areas and stronger protections for millions of square miles of ocean. The countries where we work have now passed more than 230 national and local marine conservation laws. And the gathering in Nice was our latest opportunity to accelerate support for the ocean’s health – and with it, the health and economic security of billions of people.

For me, the convenings in Dublin and Nice were a powerful reminder of the importance of a strategy that lies at the heart of our approach to tackling unmet and overlooked needs: collaboration. At both conferences, it was inspiring to talk with impassioned longtime partners who remain so committed to these causes and to meet young people who are new to the efforts. We know that lasting change happens when we build and support networks of partners that span national boundaries and public, private, and nonprofit sectors, because we’re stronger together than we are apart.