PERSON: Melinda Gates / Melinda French Gates

Co-Founder

Melinda French Gates (born Melinda Ann French; August 15, 1964) is an American philanthropist and a former multimedia product developer and manager at Microsoft. Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, she graduated from Duke University and started working at Microsoft in 1987. Shortly afterwards, she began dating the company’s co-founder and then-CEO Bill Gates, whom she married in 1994. In 2000, she and Gates co-founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest private charitable organization. The couple, who have three children together, divorced in 2021. In 2024, she resigned from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to pursue philanthropy independently, having received $12.5 billion for charitable work as part of her separation agreement.

Forbes magazine has consistently ranked French Gates as one of the world’s most powerful women. She and her ex-husband have received numerous awards and honors for their charitable work, including the US Presidential Medal of Freedom and the French Legion of Honour. She was recognized as one of the BBC’s 100 women of 2021.

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