Melinda French Gates[2] (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.[3] French Gates has consistently been ranked as one of the world's most powerful women by Forbes magazine.[4]
In early May 2021, Bill and Melinda Gates announced they were getting divorced but will still remain co-chairs of the foundation.[6] She was recognized as one of the
BBC's 100 women of 2021.[7]
Early life
Melinda Ann French was born on August 15, 1964, in
Dallas, Texas.[8][9][10] 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.[11]
French, a
Catholic, attended St. Monica Catholic School, where she was the
valedictorian of her class.[12][13] 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.[14] It was from this experience she developed her interest in computer games and the
BASIC programming language.[15]
French Gates's first job was tutoring children in mathematics and computer programming.[19] After graduation, she became a marketing manager with Microsoft, being responsible for the development of 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, French Gates was appointed as General Manager of Information Products, a position which she held until 1996.[22][23] She left Microsoft that year, reportedly, to focus on starting a family.[22]
French Gates served as a member of Duke University's Board of Trustees from 1996 to 2003.[24] 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.[25] She was also on the board of directors at
Drugstore.com but left in August 2006 to focus on philanthropic projects.[26][23] 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."[20] 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.[27] 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.[28]
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.[29][30] The book highlights the failure to acknowledge women's unpaid work, drawing on feminist economist
Dame Marilyn Waring's book If Women Counted.[31]
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.[37] 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.[38][39][40] Although the couple did not have a
prenuptial agreement,[40] Melinda Gates (who filed) did not request spousal support.[39] She was allocated over $2 billion worth of shares and stocks from the divorce.[41] The divorce was finalized on August 2, 2021.[1]
In March 2022, Melinda said that she and Bill were "friendly" but "not friends".[42]
In 2002, Melinda and Bill Gates received the Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by
Jefferson Awards.[43]
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".[47]
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[48] at
Seattle Children's (formerly Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center).[49] 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.[50]
In 2007, French Gates received an honorary doctorate in medicine from the
Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.[51] 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.[52][53] 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,[54] ranking #3 in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017, #4 in 2012 and 2016, #5 in 2020, and #6 in 2011, 2018, and 2019.
In 2017,
PresidentFrançois Hollande awarded France's highest national honor to French Gates and her husband for their charitable efforts, i.e. as
Commander of the Legion of Honour.[59] 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.[60][61] That year, French Gates was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 12 in the list of 200 Most Influential Philanthropists and Social Entrepreneurs Worldwide.[62][63]
Women in technology
French Gates's experience of a male-dominated workplace at Microsoft inspired her to encourage more women in the computing field.[64] In September 2016, she announced her desire to increase 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."[65] French Gates also spoke about this topic at the 2017
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, an annual series of conferences.[66]
She was recognized as one of the
BBC's 100 women of 2021.[7]
Bibliography
The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World (2019)
ISBN978-1-250-31357-7
^"Melinda Gates biography". biography.com. A&E Television Networks. March 15, 2018.
Archived from the original on March 27, 2019. Retrieved May 24, 2021.
^Harris, Paul (November 25, 2006).
"A woman of substance". The Guardian.
Archived from the original on August 7, 2017. Retrieved May 24, 2021. Melinda Ann French was born in Dallas on 15 August 1964.
^Business Week, Issues 3649–3652.
McGraw-Hill. 1999.
Archived from the original on September 12, 2021. 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
^"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.
Archived from the original on October 1, 2017. Retrieved September 30, 2017.