Melinda Gates

Melinda Gates
DBE
Melinda Gates at the World Economic Forum in 2011
Born Melinda Ann French
(1964-08-15) August 15, 1964
Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Residence Medina, Washington, U.S.
Alma mater Duke University
Occupation Co-Chair, operator of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Spouse(s)
Bill Gates (m. 1994)
Children 3
Website www.gatesfoundation.org

Melinda Ann Gates DBE (née French; born August 15, 1964)[1] is an American philanthropist. She is a former Microsoft employee[2] and co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She worked at Microsoft, where she was project manager for Microsoft Bob, Encarta and Expedia.

Early life and education

Bill Gates and Melinda Gates in Oslo, June 2009

Melinda Ann French was born on August 15, 1964, in Dallas, Texas.[3] She is the second of four children to Raymond Joseph French Jr., an aerospace engineer, and Elaine Agnes Amerland, a homemaker. Melinda has an older sister and two younger brothers.[4]

Melinda, a Roman Catholic,[5][6][7][8] attended St. Monica Catholic School,[9][10] where she was the top student in her class year.

Melinda graduated as valedictorian from Ursuline Academy of Dallas in 1982.[11] 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.[12] At Duke, Melinda was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, Beta Rho Chapter.[13]

Personal life

Shortly after graduating from college, Melinda joined Microsoft and participated in the development of many of Microsoft's multimedia products, including Publisher, Microsoft Bob, Encarta, and Expedia.[14]

She met Bill Gates while working at Microsoft.[2] In 1994, she married Gates in a private ceremony held in Lanai, Hawaii. Shortly thereafter, she left Microsoft to focus on starting and raising her family. Her last position there was General Manager of Information Products. Melinda and Bill Gates have three children: daughters Jennifer Katharine Gates (born 1996) and Phoebe Adele Gates (born 2002), and son Rory John Gates (born 1999). The family resides in an estate on the shore of Lake Washington near Seattle.

Gates served as a member of Duke University's board of trustees from 1996 to 2003.[15] She attends Bilderberg Group conferences and holds a seat on the board of directors of the Washington Post company.[16] She retired from the board of Drugstore.com in August 2006 to spend more time working for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.[17]

Front building of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle

As of 2014, Melinda and Bill Gates have donated US$28 billion to the Foundation.[18]

Gates and her husband were floated as possible vice presidential picks, according to an email from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta.[19]

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.[20]

In December 2005, Melinda and Bill Gates 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.[21]

In November 2006, Melinda was awarded the Insignia of the Order of the Aztec Eagle, together with Bill Gates, 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[22] at Seattle Children's (then called Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center[23]).

She chaired The Campaign for Children's, a $300 million comprehensive fundraising drive to expand facilities, fund under-compensated and uncompensated care, and grow the hospital's research program to find cures and treatments.[24]

In 2007, Melinda Gates received an honorary doctorate in medicine from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.[25]

On June 12, 2009, Melinda and Bill Gates 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.[26][27]

In 2013, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Duke University as a tribute for her philanthropic commitment. She was also ranked #3 in Forbes 2013, 2014 and 2017 lists of the 100 Most Powerful Women,[28] #4 in 2012 and #6 in 2011. Armchair Advocates added Gates to the list "100 Tweeters of Social Good You Have to Follow in 2013".[29]

Gates was appointed an honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2013 for her services to philanthropy and international development.[30]

Gates has also donated over $10 million to her high school, Ursuline Academy of Dallas. She is one of the major donors of their Facing the Future Campaign and was honored in their dedication ceremony on May 7, 2010.

In recognition of the foundation's philanthropic activities in India, Bill and Melinda Gates jointly received India's third-highest civilian honor, Padma Bhushan, in 2015.[31]

In 2016, President Barack Obama honored Gates and her husband with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their philanthropic efforts.[32]

In 2017, Gates was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 12 in the list of 200 Most Influential Philanthropists and Social Entrepreneurs Worldwide.[33][34]

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.[35]

In 2017 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.[36][37]

Work with women in technology

In September 2016, Melinda announced her desire to begin working on the lack of women in technology, saying:

We're graduating fewer women technologists. That is not good for society. We have to change it.

She explained that for the next two years she would be in "learning mode" after which she would begin addressing the problem.[38][39]

She also spoke about this topic as one of the speakers at the Grace Hopper Celebration on October 4, 2017.[40]

In the 2016 annual letter from the Gates Foundation, Melinda 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."[41]

References

  1. ↑ Texas Births, 1926–1995. Familytreelegends.com; retrieved June 29, 2013.
  2. 1 2 "Melinda Gates Biography". Biography.com. A&E Television Networks, LLC. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Office romance: how Bill met Melinda". The Independent. 27 June 2008.
  4. ↑ "Melinda Gates goes public (pg. 2)" Archived 2012-05-01 at the Wayback Machine., cnn.com, January 7, 2008.
  5. ↑ Melinda Gates (April 2012). Let's put birth control back on the agenda. TEDxChange. Retrieved June 29, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Melinda Gates: 'I'm a Catholic, but women need access to contraceptives'", Guardian.co.uk; retrieved June 29, 2013.
  7. ↑ "Catholic Melinda Gates defies the Vatican over birth control funds", independent.co.uk; retrieved June 29, 2013.
  8. ↑ Goodell, Jeff (March 13, 2014). "Bill Gates: The Rolling Stone Interview". Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  9. ↑ Business Week, Issues 3649–3652. McGraw-Hill. 1999. Retrieved March 10, 2011. Raised a Roman Catholic and educated at a girls' Catholic high school, Melinda was encouraged to pursue her love of science
  10. ↑ Jeanne M. Lesinski (2009). Bill Gates: Entrepreneur and Philanthropist. Twenty First Century Books. ISBN 9781580135702. Retrieved March 10, 2011. Melinda, a devout Catholic, wanted a religious wedding
  11. ↑ "Ursuline Receives Additional $2 Million Grant; Science, Math, Technology Building Task Force is Formed". Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
  12. ↑ Mary Zeiss Stange; Carol K. Oyster; Jane E. Sloan (9 January 2013). The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World. SAGE Publications. pp. 386–. ISBN 978-1-4522-7037-1.
  13. ↑ "The incredible life of Melinda Gates — one of the world's richest and most powerful women". 1 November 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  14. ↑ "Profile: Bill Gates". BBC News. January 26, 2004.
  15. ↑ Gates Joins Trustees Archived 2012-08-02 at Archive.is, Fuqua.duke.edu; retrieved June 29, 2013.
  16. ↑ "Biography: Melinda French Gates". The Washington Post Company. 2007. Retrieved February 14, 2008.
  17. ↑ "Officers and Directors". Drugstore.com. 2005. Archived from the original on February 7, 2006. Retrieved February 14, 2008.
  18. ↑ Bill Gates' philanthropy profile, forbes.com; retrieved April 23, 2016.
  19. ↑ ""Read the Surprising List of Hillary Clinton's Potential Running Mates"". Time.
  20. ↑ Jefferson Awards website, jeffersonawards.org; accessed April 23, 2016.
  21. ↑ "2012 Laureates – Prince of Asturias Awards", fpa.es; retrieved June 2, 2013.
  22. ↑ Children's Hospital Dedicates Melinda French Gates Ambulatory Care Building Archived 2013-06-03 at the Wayback Machine., Seattlechildrens.org; retrieved June 29, 2013.
  23. ↑ How Our Name Evolved, Seattlechildrens.org; retrieved June 29, 2013.
  24. ↑ Seattle Children's Hospital Unveils $300 Million Capital Campaign – $200 Million Already Raised Archived 2013-06-03 at the Wayback Machine., seattlechildrens.org; retrieved June 29, 2013.
  25. ↑ "Medicine hedersdoktorer 1910–2013 (Honorary Doctors of Medicine 1910–2013)" (PDF). Hedersdoktorer vid Karolinska Institutet (Honorary Doctors at the Karolinska Institute) (in Swedish). Stockholm: Karolinska Institute. 22 May 2013. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  26. ↑ "Gates Cambridge Trust". New York University. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  27. ↑ "Gates Cambridge Trust announces new Provost". University of Cambridge. University of Cambridge. 13 May 2013.
  28. ↑ "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women 2013". Forbes. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  29. ↑ "100 Tweeters of Social Good You Have to Follow in 2013". Armchair Advocates. September 22, 2013. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
  30. ↑ "Angela Ahrendts and Melinda Gates made (honorary) Dames of the British Empire". theguardian.com. Retrieved May 21, 2014.
  31. ↑ PTI. "Advani, Bachchan, Dilip Kumar get Padma Vibhushan". The Hindu. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
  32. ↑ "President Obama Names Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom". whitehouse.gov. The White House. November 16, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
  33. ↑ "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 30 March 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  34. ↑ "Top 200 Global Philanthropists, Social Entrepreneurs". ThisDayLive. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  35. ↑ http://www.epa.eu/human-interest-photos/people-photos/bill-gates-and-melinda-gates-receive-the-french-legion-of-honor-medal-photos-53469764
  36. ↑ "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). Retrieved 30 September 2017.
  37. ↑ "Melinda Gates mit Friedensmedaille geehrt". Focus (in German). Helmut Markwort. Deutsche Presse-Agentur. 25 May 2017. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
  38. ↑ Hempel, Jessi. "Melinda Gates Has a New Mission: Women in Tech". Wired Media Group: Backchannel.
  39. ↑ O'Brien, Sara Ashley (September 28, 2016). "Melinda Gates is doubling down on this issue". CNN Tech.
  40. ↑ "Melinda Gates on women in tech, her first love, and the origins of Comic Sans". GeekWire. 4 October 2017.
  41. ↑ Gates, Bill and Melinda. "Two Superpowers We Wish We Had". gatesnotes.com.
  • Profile at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
  • Appearances on C-SPAN
  • Melinda Gates on Charlie Rose
  • Melinda Gates at TED Edit this at Wikidata
  • Melinda Gates on IMDb
  • "Melinda Gates collected news and commentary". The New York Times.
  • Melinda Gates Goes Public, Fortune magazine, January 4, 2008
  • Melinda Gates Philanthropic Profile, GiveSmart.org, November, 2012
  • Melinda Gates Video produced by Makers: Women Who Make America
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