Melinda French Gates facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Melinda French Gates
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French Gates in 2012
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Melinda Ann French
August 15, 1964 Dallas, Texas, U.S.
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| Education | Duke University (BA, MBA) |
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| Children | 3 |
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Melinda French Gates (born Melinda Ann French; August 15, 1964) is an American who helps people around the world through charity work. She used to work at Microsoft, a big computer company, where she helped create many computer products.
Melinda was born and grew up in Dallas, Texas. After finishing college at Duke University, she started working at Microsoft in 1987. There, she met Bill Gates, who was the boss of Microsoft. They got married in 1994. In 2000, Melinda and Bill started the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This is the biggest private charity in the world. They have three children together. Melinda and Bill divorced in 2021. In 2024, Melinda decided to leave the Gates Foundation to do her own charity work.
Forbes magazine has often said that Melinda French Gates is one of the most powerful women in the world. She and Bill have received many awards for their charity work, like the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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Early Life and Learning
Melinda Ann French was born on August 15, 1964, in Dallas, Texas. She was the second of four children. Her father was an engineer, and her mother stayed home to care for the family.
Melinda went to a Catholic school. When she was 14, she learned about computers using an Apple II computer. Her teacher encouraged her to learn computer science. This is when she became interested in computer games and learning how to code using a language called BASIC.
Melinda finished high school as the top student in 1982. She then went to Duke University. She earned two degrees there: one in computer science and another in economics. She also got a business degree (an MBA) from Duke in 1987.
Working at Microsoft
Melinda French Gates's first job was teaching kids math and computer programming. After college, she joined Microsoft as a marketing manager. She helped create many different computer products. These included programs like Cinemania (for movies), Encarta (an encyclopedia), Publisher (for making documents), and Money (for finances). She also worked on Expedia, which became a very popular website for booking travel.
In the early 1990s, Melinda became a General Manager at Microsoft. She stayed in this important role until 1996. She left Microsoft that year to focus on starting her family.
Melinda also served on the board of trustees for Duke University from 1996 to 2003. She has also been on the board of directors for other companies, like Graham Holdings. Since 2000, Melinda has become well-known for her work helping the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. By 2022, she and Bill had given billions of dollars to the foundation. In 2015, Melinda started her own organization called Pivotal Ventures. This group works to find new ways to help women and families in the U.S. In May 2024, Melinda announced she would leave her role at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Her Book
In 2019, Melinda French Gates wrote a book called The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World. The book talks about how important it is to recognize the work women do, especially unpaid work. It explains how helping women can change the world for the better.
Family Life
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Melinda started dating Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in 1987. They met at a trade fair in New York. In 1994, they got married in Hawaii. They have three children: two daughters named Jennifer and Phoebe, and a son named Rory. Their family lived in a special house built into a hillside overlooking Lake Washington in Washington state.
In May 2021, Melinda and Bill Gates announced they were getting a divorce after 27 years of marriage. Their divorce was finalized in August 2021. Since then, she has publicly used the name Melinda French Gates.
Melinda is a practicing Catholic.
Honors and Awards
Melinda French Gates has received many awards for her charity work. In 2005, Time magazine named Melinda and Bill as Persons of the Year. In 2006, they received the Spanish Prince of Asturias Award for their charity work around the world. They also received an award from Mexico for their work in health and education there.
In 2006, a building at Seattle Children's Hospital was named the Melinda French Gates Ambulatory Care building. This was to honor her work helping children. She also helped the hospital raise a lot of money to expand its facilities and research.
Melinda has received honorary degrees from several universities, including the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the University of Cambridge. In 2000, she and Bill gave a large gift to Cambridge University to create the Gates Cambridge Scholarships. These scholarships help students from other countries study at the university.
Forbes magazine has often included Melinda on its list of the 100 Most Powerful Women. In 2013, she was made an honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her work in charity and international development. In 2015, she and Bill received India's third-highest civilian honor, the Padma Bhushan, for their work in India. In 2016, President Barack Obama gave Melinda and Bill the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This is one of the highest awards a civilian can receive in the U.S.
In 2017, the President of France gave Melinda and Bill France's highest national honor, the Legion of Honour, for their charity work.
Encouraging Women in Tech
Melinda French Gates worked in a field where most people were men. This experience made her want to help more women get into computer and technology jobs. In 2016, she said it was important to have more women in technology. She believes that every company needs technology, but fewer women are studying it. She thinks this needs to change for the good of society. Melinda has spoken about this topic at conferences like the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. She was also recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2021.
Published Works
- The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World (2019) ISBN: 978-1-250-31357-7
See also
In Spanish: Melinda Gates para niños
