SEATTLE—Heidi Sinclair is stepping down from her role as chair of the global technology practice at Weber Shandiwck, for family reasons. Sinclair, who joined the firm in 2010 after serving as the chief communications officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, says she will not be taking another full-time position.

She will, however, continue to serve on several boards—she currently sits on the boards of privately-held retailers Bag Borrow or Steal and Portero, and coffee company Concordia Coffee Systems—and to write for publications such as Huffington Post and Techonomy.

In a memo to colleagues, Sinclair said that “from the moment I hired Weber Shandwick in 2008 in my role as CCO at the Gates Foundation to today, I have constantly marveled at the intelligence, creativity and work ethic of this organization. It has been a blast to lead the very talented global technology practice over the past couple of years. We have laid a strong foundation for the future”

She leaves behind a regional leadership team that includes Barkha Patel in Asia, Brad Williams in North America, and George Coleman in Europe.

At Weber Shandwick, Sinclair has worked with clients including Samsung, Motorola, Juniper, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft. Previously, she spent two years as CCO for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with responsibility for the Foundation’s communications to all stakeholders and the general public globally.

Before that, she was CEO for Europe, Middle East & Africa and global chairman of technology for Burson-Marsteller.