Melinda French Gates
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 2000, she and her then-husband Bill Gates co-founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest private charitable organization.[5] She and her ex-husband have been awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom and the French Legion of Honour. In early May 2021, Bill and Melinda Gates announced they were getting divorced.[6] She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2021.[7]
In this article, the surname is French Gates, not Gates.
Melinda French Gates
Duke University (BA, MBA)
- Co-founder and former co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Founder, Pivotal Ventures
3
Early life[edit]
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 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, French was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, Beta Rho Chapter.[18]
Women in technology[edit]
French Gates's experience of a male-dominated workplace at Microsoft inspired her to encourage more women in the computing field.[67] 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."[68] French Gates also spoke about this topic at the 2017 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, an annual series of conferences.[69] She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2021.[7]