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Melinda French Gates

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Melinda Gates
Gates in 2011
Born
Melinda Ann French

(1964-08-15) August 15, 1964 (age 60)
Dallas, Texas, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationDuke University (BA, MBA)
Occupation(s)Co-Chair and Founder, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Spouse
(m. 1994)
Children3
WebsiteProfile

Melinda Ann Gates (née French; born August 15, 1964)[1] is an American philanthropist, self-proclaimed public health expert, and a former general manager at Microsoft, the world's largest computer software company.[2] In 2000, she and her husband Bill Gates co-founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest private charitable organization as of 2015.[3] Gates has consistently been ranked as one of the world's most powerful women by Forbes.[4]

Early life

Melinda Ann French was born on August 15, 1964 in Dallas, Texas.[5][6] She is the second of four children born to Raymond Joseph French Jr., an aerospace engineer, and Elaine Agnes Amerland, a homemaker. Melinda has an older sister and two younger brothers.[7]

Melinda, a Catholic,[8][9][10][11] attended St. Monica Catholic School, where she was the top student in her class.[12][13] At age 14, Melinda was introduced to the Apple II by her father, and a school teacher named Mrs. Bauer who advocated for teaching the students at the all-girls school computer science.[14] It was from this experience she developed her interest in computer games and the BASIC programming language.[15]

Melinda graduated as valedictorian from Ursuline Academy of Dallas in 1982.[16] 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.[17] At Duke, Melinda was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, Beta Rho Chapter.[18]

Career

Gates' first job was tutoring children in mathematics and computer programming.[19] After graduation, she became a marketing manager with Microsoft, being responsible for leading the development of various multimedia products.[20] These included Cinemania, Encarta, Publisher, Microsoft Bob, Money, Works (Macintosh) and Word.[20][21] She worked on Expedia, which became one of the most popular travel booking websites. In the early 1990s, Gates was appointed as General Manager of Information Products, a position which she held until 1996.[22] She left Microsoft that year, reportedly, to focus on starting a family.[22]

Gates served as a member of Duke University's Board of Trustees from 1996 to 2003.[23] She attends the annual Bilderberg Group conference and has held a seat on the Board of Directors of The Washington Post company since 2004.[24] She was also on the Board of Directors at Drugstore.com, but left in August 2006 to focus on philanthropy projects.[25] Since 2000, Gates has been active in the public eye, stating "As I thought about strong women of history, I realized that they stepped out in some way".[20] This has helped her work become recognized, while shaping and delivering goals of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As of 2014, Bill and Melinda have donated US$28 billion to the Foundation.[26] In 2015 Gates founded Pivotal Ventures as a separate, independent organization to identify, help develop and implement innovative solutions to problems affecting U.S. women and families.[27]

Writer

In 2019, Gates debuted as an author with the book The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World. Former President Obama starred in a comedy sketch in order to promote it.[28][29] The book highlights the failure to acknowledge women's unpaid work, drawing on feminist economist Dame Marilyn Waring's book If Women Counted.[30]


Personal life

Melinda and her husband, Bill, 2009

Melinda began dating Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in 1987, after meeting him at a trade fair in New York.[5][31] In 1994, she married Gates in a private ceremony held in Lanai, Hawaii. They have three children: Jennifer, Phoebe and Rory Gates.[32] The family resides in Xanadu 2.0, an earth-sheltered mansion overlooking Lake Washington in Medina, Washington.[33] The family also owns an oceanfront residence in Del Mar, California.[34][35]

Gates and her husband were suggested as possible vice-presidential picks in the 2016 United States presidential election, according to a reportedly hacked email published by WikiLeaks from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta.[36]

Awards and recognition

In 2002, Melinda and Bill Gates received the Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.[37]

In December 2005, Melinda and Bill Gates were named by Time as Persons of the Year alongside Bono.[38] 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.[39]

In November 2006, Melinda 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".[40]

Front building of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle

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[41] at Seattle Children's (formerly Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center).[42] 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.[43]

In 2007, Gates received an honorary doctorate in medicine from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.[44] In 2009, she and her 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.[45][46] Lastly, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Duke University in 2013 as a tribute for her philanthropic commitment.

She was ranked #3 in Forbes 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017 lists of the 100 Most Powerful Women,[47] #4 in 2012 and 2016, #5 in 2020, and #6 in 2011, 2018, and 2019.

She was awarded the UCSF medal in 2013.[48] Gates was appointed an honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2013 for services to philanthropy and international development.[49] In recognition of the foundation's philanthropic activities in India, Bill and Melinda jointly received India's third-highest civilian honor, Padma Bhushan, in 2015.[50] In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded Gates and her husband with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their philanthropic efforts.[51]

In 2017, President François Hollande awarded Gates and her husband with France's highest national award, the Legion of Honour, in Paris for their charity efforts.[52] That year, she was awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal 2016 of the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN), Berlin-Brandenburg, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding" in the historic Berlin Town Hall.[53][54] That year, Gates was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 12 in the list of 200 Most Influential Philanthropists and Social Entrepreneurs Worldwide.[55][56]

Women in technology

Gates' experience of a male-dominated workplace at Microsoft inspired her to encourage more women in the computing field.[57] In September 2016, she announced her desire on increasing the diversity in the workplace, especially in the technology industry, stating: "Every company needs technology, and yet we’re graduating fewer women technologists. That is not good for society. We have to change it."[58] Gates also spoke about this topic at the 2017 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, an annual series of conferences.[59]

In the 2016 annual letter from the Gates Foundation, Gates said women should "spend more time doing paid work, starting businesses, or otherwise contributing to the economic well-being of societies around the world. The fact that they can't, holds their families and communities back."[60][non sequitur]

Bibliography

  • The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World (2019) ISBN 978-1-250-31357-7

References

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  5. ^ a b "Office romance: how Bill met Melinda". The Independent. June 27, 2008.
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  7. ^ "Melinda Gates goes public (pg. 2)" Archived May 1, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, cnn.com, January 7, 2008.
  8. ^ Melinda Gates (April 2012). Let's put birth control back on the agenda. TEDxChange. Retrieved June 29, 2013.
  9. ^ "Melinda Gates: 'I'm a Catholic, but women need access to contraceptives'", Guardian.co.uk; retrieved June 29, 2013.
  10. ^ "Catholic Melinda Gates defies the Vatican over birth control funds", independent.co.uk; retrieved June 29, 2013.
  11. ^ Goodell, Jeff (March 13, 2014). "Bill Gates: The Rolling Stone Interview". Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  12. ^ Jeanne M. Lesinski (2009). Bill Gates: Entrepreneur and Philanthropist. Twenty First Century Books. p. 61. ISBN 978-1-58013-570-2. Retrieved March 10, 2011. Melinda, a devout Catholic, wanted a religious wedding
  13. ^ Business Week, Issues 3649–3652. McGraw-Hill. 1999. Retrieved March 10, 2011. Raised a Roman Catholic and educated at a girls' Catholic high school, Ursaline Academy in Dallas, Melinda was encouraged to pursue her love of science
  14. ^ author., Gates, Melinda, 1964- (January 12, 2021). The moment of lift : how empowering women changes the world. ISBN 978-1-250-25772-7. OCLC 1097579369. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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  20. ^ a b c Cathleen., Small (2017). Melinda Gates : Philanthropist and Education Advocate. New York, NY: Cavendish Square Publishing LLC. ISBN 978-1-5026-2708-7. OCLC 1039680502.
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  22. ^ a b Honders, Christine. Melinda Gates. New York. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-5081-4832-6. OCLC 921141343.
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  25. ^ "Officers and Directors". Drugstore.com. 2005. Archived from the original on February 7, 2006. Retrieved February 14, 2008.
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  31. ^ "Profile: Bill Gates". BBC News. January 26, 2004.
  32. ^ Bose, Áine Cain, Debanjali. "Inside the life of Bill Gates' daughter Jennifer, an elite equestrian who stands to inherit 'a minuscule portion' of her father's $110 billion fortune and is engaged to accomplished Egyptian equestrian Nayel Nassar". Business Insider. Retrieved April 20, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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  34. ^ Vasishta, Jeff (April 24, 2020). "Bill and Melinda Gates Pick Up Del Mar Oceanfront Mansion". Variety. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
  35. ^ Molnar, Phillip (April 24, 2020). "Report: Bill and Melinda Gates buy a $43-million Del Mar home". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
  36. ^ Frizell, Sam (October 18, 2016). "Read the Surprising List of Hillary Clinton's Potential Running Mates". Time. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
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  39. ^ "2012 Laureates – Prince of Asturias Awards", fpa.es; retrieved June 2, 2013.
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  48. ^ "UCSF Medal". Office of the Chancellor. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
  49. ^ "Angela Ahrendts and Melinda Gates made (honorary) Dames of the British Empire". theguardian.com. Retrieved May 21, 2014.
  50. ^ PTI. "Advani, Bachchan, Dilip Kumar get Padma Vibhushan". The Hindu. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  51. ^ "President Obama Names Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom". whitehouse.gov. November 16, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2016 – via National Archives.
  52. ^ "Bill Gates and Melinda Gates receive the French Legion of Honor medal Photos". epa.eu. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
  53. ^ "Otto-Hahn-Friedensmedaille an Melinda Gates". Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Vereinten Nationen, Berlin-Brandenburg (in German). United Nations Association of Germany, LV Berlin-Brandenburg (DGVN). May 26, 2017. Retrieved September 30, 2017.
  54. ^ "Melinda Gates mit Friedensmedaille geehrt". Focus (in German). Helmut Markwort. Deutsche Presse-Agentur. May 25, 2017. Retrieved September 30, 2017.
  55. ^ "Philanthropists & Social Entrepreneurs Top 200: From Elon Musk to Melinda Gates, These Are the Most Influential Do-Gooders in the World". Richtopia. Archived from the original on March 30, 2017. Retrieved March 30, 2017.
  56. ^ "Top 200 Global Philanthropists, Social Entrepreneurs". ThisDayLive. Archived from the original on April 1, 2017. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
  57. ^ "Melinda Gates reveals 'aggressive,' male-dominated life at Microsoft as she calls on all of us to redesign the workplace". www.campaignlive.co.uk. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
  58. ^ "Melinda Gates Wants More Women in Tech Jobs". Money. Retrieved March 13, 2019.
  59. ^ "Melinda Gates on women in tech, her first love, and the origins of Comic Sans". GeekWire. October 4, 2017.
  60. ^ Gates, Bill and Melinda (February 22, 2016). "Two Superpowers We Wish We Had". gatesnotes.com. Retrieved January 29, 2021.