Gates Makes Lifetime Pledge to Buffett’s Berkshire

April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, recruited by his friend Warren Buffett to join the board at Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said he’s committed to the firm for the rest of his life.

Gates and fellow Berkshire board member Don Keough, the former president of Coca-Cola Co., said in separate interviews with Bloomberg Television that their role with Omaha, Nebraska- based Berkshire is to protect the company’s culture and values after Buffett, 78, steps down. Buffett has pledged the majority of his Berkshire shares to Gates’s charitable foundation.

“I’ve got a commitment to stay involved with Berkshire as a lifelong thing,” Gates, 53, said in an interview scheduled to be broadcast today. “We always have to think about what might happen and make sure Berkshire is not just great now, but forever.”