Melinda Gates Wiki, Age, Boyfriend, Husband, Family, Biography and More – WikiBio
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Melinda Gates is an American businesswoman, philanthropist and global advocate for women and girls. She is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest private charitable foundation. Melinda is the ex-wife of American business magnate Bill Gates.
Wiki/Biography
Melinda Gates was born on Saturday, August 15, 1964 as Melinda Ann French (Age 57; as of 2021) in Dallas, Texas, USA. Her zodiac sign is Leo.
She attended Santa Monica Catholic School in Dallas. She has been good at learning since she was a child, always at the top of her class. When Melinda was 14, her father bought her an Apple II (an 8-bit home computer). He also introduced her to a math teacher named Mrs Ball.
Melinda developed an early interest in computer science and the BASIC programming language while learning advanced mathematics from her teacher. In 1982, she graduated from Ursuline College in Dallas as a valedictorian.
She later continued her interest in computer science at university, earning a bachelor’s degree in computer science and economics from Duke University in North Carolina in 1986. A year later, she earned an MBA in Economics from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. During her college days, she was a member of the Beta Rho chapter of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.
appearance
Height (approximately): 5′ 7″
hair color: Golden
eye color: Brown
family and race
Melinda Gates is Roman Catholic.
parents and siblings
Melinda Gates was born to Raymond Joseph French Jr. (aeronautical engineer) and Elaine Agnes Amerland (housewife). She has an older sister and two younger brothers.
Relationships, Husbands and Children
Melinda joined Microsoft in 1987 as a product manager. That same year, she dined with Bill Gates (American business tycoon) at a trade show in New York.
The two began dating and tied the knot in 1994 in a private ceremony on the Hawaiian island of Lanai.
Bill Gates said in a Netflix documentary,
We care about each other very much, and there are only two possibilities: either break up or get married. “
In an interview, talking about Gates, Melinda said,
Even when it comes to matters of heart, it seems to be methodical – writing down a list of the pros and cons of getting married on a whiteboard. “
In 1996, Melinda gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Jennifer Katherine Gates.
The couple later became parents to two other children: a boy named Rory John and a girl named Phoebe Adele.
The couple decided to end their 27-year marriage in 2021. In May 2021, when the couple announced their divorce, the couple tweeted,
After much deliberation and a lot of work on our relationship, we decided to end our marriage. Over the past 27 years, we have raised three incredible children and established a foundation that operates around the world to empower all people to lead healthy, productive lives. We continue to share our belief in this mission and will continue to work together at the Foundation, but we no longer believe that we can grow together in the next phase of our lives. As we begin to navigate this new life, we demand space and privacy for our families. “
After the couple announced their divorce, their daughter Jennifer Gates wrote on Instagram,
This has been a challenging time for our whole family. I’m still learning how to best support my own processes and emotions.”
Profession
as a businesswoman
Melinda started her career as a math and computer programming teacher. In 1987, she joined Microsoft Corporation as a product manager, developing multimedia and interactive products such as Cinemania, Encarta, Publisher, Microsoft Bob, Money, Works (Macintosh) and Word. Melinda also worked for Expedia, a budget travel planning site that has since become one of the most popular travel booking sites. In 1990, her hard work earned her the position of General Manager of Information Products. She held that position until 1996, when she resigned from Microsoft to focus on her family. From 1996 to 2003, she served on the Duke University Board of Trustees. In 2004, Gates became a member of the board of directors of The Washington Post Company. Melinda was also a board member of Drugstore.com, but left in August 2006 to focus on her charitable work.
as a philanthropist
Melinda and Bill Gates founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle in 2000 with the goal of focusing on public health, education and climate change. In 2006, Gates reorganized the organization into three divisions: Global Health, Global Development, and American Communities and Education.
As the organization’s founder, Gates has been working on prevention strategies, vaccines and treatments for diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
In 2011, her organization reaffirmed its mission to “improve equity in four areas: global health, education, access to digital information through public libraries, and supporting at-risk families in Washington and Oregon.” The following year, Melin Dar has pledged $560 million to improve women’s access to contraception in poor countries. Gates remains committed to changing education in America and helps students fund their studies through her foundation’s Gates Millennium Scholars Program. Over the years, her foundation has become one of the most powerful and influential forces in global public health. Over the past two decades, the organization has spent more than $50 billion fighting poverty and disease. At the end of 2019, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had a net worth of $43.3 billion (according to its full-year financials shown on its website), making the foundation the largest private charitable foundation in the United States and the world.
In 2015, Melinda founded Pivotal Ventures as an independent organization. The organization was founded to identify, develop, and implement innovative solutions to problems affecting women and families in America.
In addition to the United States, Melinda works to improve the living conditions of the poor in countries such as India, South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.
as a writer
In 2019, Melinda began writing the book A Moment to Lift: How Empowering Women Changed the World. The book traces the awakening to the link between women’s empowerment and social health.
Awards and Honors
- Melinda and Bill Gates received the Jefferson Prize (2002) for “Public Service Most Beneficial to the Disadvantaged” each year.
- Melinda and Bill Gates, along with Bono, were named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year (2005).
- Melinda and Bill Gates received the Spanish Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation in recognition of their impact on the world through charitable giving (2006).
- Melinda and Bill Gates were awarded the “Order of the Aztec Eagle” (2006) for their philanthropic work in health and education around the world.
- Melinda received an honorary doctorate in medicine from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden (2007).
- Melinda and Bill Gates received honorary degrees from the University of Cambridge (2009).
- Melinda was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humanities Doctorate by Duke University in recognition of her philanthropic commitment (2013).
- She was ranked third on Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017.
- She was ranked #4 on Forbes’ 2012 and 2016 list of the 100 Most Powerful Women.
- Melinda ranked No. 5 in 2020 and No. 6 on Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women in 2011, 2018 and 2019.
- Melinda was awarded the UCSF Medal (2013).
- Melinda and Bill Gates shared India’s third highest civilian honor, Padma Bhushan, for their charitable efforts in India (2015).
- Melinda and Bill Gates receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama (2016) for philanthropy.
- Melinda and Bill Gates were awarded the Legion of Honor, France’s highest national honour, by French President François Hollande in Paris (2017).
- She was ranked 12th in the list of the 200 most influential philanthropists and social entrepreneurs in the world by British firm Richtopia (2017).
- Recipient of the Otto Hahn Peace Medal 2016 (2017) by the German Association of the United Nations (DGVN) in Berlin-Brandenburg.
sign
favorite things
- TV show: The Colbert Report (2005-2014)
Facts/trivia
- Melinda’s mother, Elaine, who herself never went to college, takes her children’s higher education very seriously. Elaine had her family maintain their rental property on weekends in order to provide tuition and fees for Melinda and her siblings.
- Melinda enjoyed playing football during high school and college. Even now, she has a keen interest in the game, and whenever she has time, she likes to watch football games.
- After marrying Bill Gates, Melinda was known as Melinda French Gates.
- Melinda and Bill Gates reportedly rented all the local helicopters on their wedding day to stop unwanted guests from flying over their wedding venue.
- In 1993, Melinda and Bill Gates went on vacation to Africa. When they see animals at safari parks, they are deeply disturbed by the systemic poverty there. The trip later sowed the seeds for the “Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.”
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