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Melinda Gates Biography & Facts

Melinda French Gates (born Melinda Ann French; August 15, 1964) is an American philanthropist, former multimedia product developer and manager at Microsoft, and the ex-wife of its co-founder and billionaire Bill Gates. French Gates has consistently been ranked as one of the world's most powerful women by Forbes magazine. In 2000, she and her then-husband Bill Gates co-founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest private charitable organization. She and her ex-husband have been awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom and the French Legion of Honour. In early May 2021, Bill and Melinda Gates announced they were getting divorced but will still remain co-chairs of the foundation. She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2021. Early life Melinda Ann French was born on August 15, 1964, in Dallas, Texas. She is the second of four children born to Raymond Joseph French Jr., an aerospace engineer, and Elaine Agnes Amerland, a homemaker. She has an older sister and two younger brothers. French, a Catholic, attended St. Monica Catholic School, where she was the valedictorian of her class. At age 14, French was introduced to the Apple II by her father, and Mrs. Bauer, a school teacher who advocated teaching computer science at the all-girls school. It was from this experience she developed her interest in computer games and the BASIC programming language. French graduated as valedictorian from Ursuline Academy of Dallas in 1982. She earned a bachelor's degree in computer science and economics from Duke University in 1986 and an MBA from Duke's Fuqua School of Business in 1987. At Duke, French was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, Beta Rho Chapter. Career French Gates's first job was tutoring children in mathematics and computer programming. After graduation, she became a marketing manager with Microsoft, being responsible for the development of multimedia products. These included Cinemania, Encarta, Publisher, Microsoft Bob, Money, Works (Macintosh) and Word. She worked on Expedia, which became one of the most popular travel booking websites. In the early 1990s, French Gates was appointed as General Manager of Information Products, a position which she held until 1996. She left Microsoft that year, reportedly, to focus on starting a family. French Gates served as a member of Duke University's Board of Trustees from 1996 to 2003. She attends the annual Bilderberg Group conference and has held a seat on the Board of Directors of Graham Holdings (formerly The Washington Post Company) since 2004. She was also on the board of directors at Drugstore.com but left in August 2006 to focus on philanthropic projects. Since 2000, French Gates has been in the public eye, stating "As I thought about strong women of history, I realized that they stepped out in some way." This has allowed her work shaping and advancing the goals of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to be publicly recognized. By 2022, Bill and Melinda had given US$59.1 billion of their personal wealth to the Foundation. In 2015, French Gates founded Pivotal Ventures as a separate, independent organization to identify and implement innovative solutions to problems affecting U.S. women and families. Writing In 2019, French Gates debuted as an author with the book The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World. Former president Barack Obama starred in a comedy sketch in order to promote it. The book highlights the failure to acknowledge women's unpaid work, drawing on feminist economist Dame Marilyn Waring's book If Women Counted. Personal life Melinda began dating Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in 1987, after meeting him at a trade fair in New York. In 1994, she married Gates in a private ceremony held in Lanai, Hawaii. They have three children: daughters Jennifer and Phoebe Gates and son Rory Gates. The family maintained a home in an earth-sheltered mansion overlooking Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. The family also owned an oceanfront residence in Del Mar, California. In May 2021, Melinda Gates and her then-husband announced their decision to divorce in a joint statement on social media. This ended 27 years of marriage, and 34 years as a couple. According to The Wall Street Journal, Melinda Gates had been meeting with divorce lawyers since at least October 2019 after Bill's business dealings with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein became public, and she had warned him about associating with Epstein as early as 2013. Although the couple did not have a prenuptial agreement, Melinda Gates (who filed) did not request spousal support. She was allocated over $2 billion worth of shares and stocks from the divorce. The divorce was finalized on August 2, 2021. In March 2022, Melinda said that she and Bill were "friendly" but "not friends". Awards and recognition In 1998, Melinda and Bill Gates were each honored with an American Library Association Honorary Membership. In 2002, Melinda and Bill Gates received the Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards. In December 2005, Melinda and Bill were named by Time as Persons of the Year alongside Bono. Melinda and Bill Gates received the Spanish Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation on May 4, 2006, in recognition of their world impact through charitable giving. In November 2006, French Gates was awarded the Insignia of the Order of the Aztec Eagle, together with Bill, who was awarded the Placard of the same order, both for their philanthropic work around the world in the areas of health and education, particularly in Mexico, and specifically in the program "Un país de lectores". In May 2006, in honor of her work to improve the lives of children locally and around the world, Seattle Children's Hospital dedicated the Melinda French Gates Ambulatory Care building at Seattle Children's (formerly Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center). She chaired a campaign for the hospital to fundraise $300 million to expand facilities, fund under-compensated and uncompensated care, and grow the hospital's research program to find cures and treatments. In 2007, French Gates received an honorary doctorate in medicine from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2009, she and her then-husband received honorary degrees from the University of Cambridge. Their benefaction of $210 million in 2000 set up the Gates Cambridge Trust, which funds postgraduate scholars from outside the UK to study at the university. Lastly, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Duke University in 2013 in honor of her philanthropic commitment. She has been repeated recognized by Forbes in its annual list of the 100 Most Powerful Women, ranking #3 in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017, #4 in 2012 and 2016, #5 in 2020, and #6 in 2011, 2018, and 2019. She was awarded the UCSF medal in 2013. French Gates was appointed an honorary Dame Commander of.... Discover the Melinda Gates popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Melinda Gates books.