Melinda French Gates
Melinda French Gates heads with her husband, Bill Gates, the Seattle-based Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, a philanthropic organization that works to help people lead healthy and productive lives in developing countries as well as the United States.
In 1986, Melinda Gates received a bachelor’s degree in computer science and economics from Duke University. Later in 1987, she obtained a master’s in business administration from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.
After joining Microsoft Corp. in 1987, she distinguished herself in business as a leader in the development of many of Microsoft’s multimedia products. In 1996, Melinda Gates retired from her position as Microsoft’s General Manager of Information Products.
As a co-chair with Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, Melinda shapes and approves strategies, reviews results, advocates for the foundation’s issues, as well as helps set the overall direction of the organization.
Melinda Gates told Diane Sawyer of Good Morning America one goal is to give away $100 billion over the course of her life. Much of the focus of the foundation is in fighting global health crisis’, such as AIDS and malaria.
Here in the United States, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given about $4 billion in education.
Born Melinda Ann French, Melinda Gates, now 45, was born on August 15, 1964 in Dallas, Texas. She was 29 when she married Bill Gates on Jan. 1, 1994 on the Hawaiian island of Lanai. They have three children together.
In an interview on KOMO News, Melinda said: “We set out what’s going to be our work time versus our foundation time versus family time, and we’ll reassess that (…) sometimes every week (…) We talk a lot in our home together about where we’re going, what I’m doing. I think this is very much a collaborative effort. We come at it from slightly different angles, but that’s why it’s a natural for us to do it together.”
In 2005, she and her husband were names by Time magazine as Persons of the Year. Melinda Gates was ranked No. 40 in Forbes magazine list of the 100 Most Powerful Women in 2008, and previously No. 24 in 2007 and No.12 in 2006.