In 2005, Time named Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Bono its Persons of the Year.
Time selected the trio because of their influential charitable work and efforts to address global poverty, disease, and other humanitarian challenges. Gates and Melinda Gates were recognized for the work of their foundation, while Bono was known for advocacy connected to African development and debt relief.
The award was presented as a shared honor rather than a ranking among the three people. Time’s annual designation is often informally called “Man of the Year,” but the magazine changed the official title to “Person of the Year” in 1999 to make it gender-neutral. The 2005 selection therefore did not mean that Gates alone won the honor.
The trio’s selection also reflected a broader shift in Gates’s public profile: by that period, his philanthropy had become nearly as prominent internationally as his work in software.