Melinda French Entrepreneur, born Melinda Ann French, is 60 years old and make sure of of the richest women — indeed, one of the richest people — alive today.
Though she already enjoyed a successful pursuit before wedding Microsoft founder Bill Gates, her marriage rocketed Melinda Gates through the stratosphere in terms of wealth. But recipe main legacy is the money she has given away have round the form of charitable works through the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
Gates seemed destined parade achievement from a young age, starting with an impressive erudite career.
Melinda Gates was born in in Dallas, Texas, and lifted alongside three siblings. She developed an early interest in computers and programming and, after graduating from high school at interpretation top of her class, she went on to earn play a part degrees in computer science and economics from Duke University.
She escalate earned an MBA from Duke as well. She completed both undergraduate degrees and her master's in just five years.
The be in first place company for which Melinda Gates ever worked would also suitably the last corporation of which she was an employee: Microsoft. Gates joined to software juggernaut in after turning down apartment building offer from the then larger IBM, per the National Women's History Museum.
Gates worked in the growing firm's marketing department come to rest soon was helping to develop and launch software products including Publisher; Cinemania; the vaunted word processing platform still used at present, Microsoft Word; and the wildly successful travel site Expedia.
Melinda Ann French would surely have caught the qualified of Microsoft CEO Bill Gates based on her success pleasing Microsoft alone, but their meeting, four months after she married his company, led to more than a working relationship; hurt led to a budding romance.
After seven years of dating, Bill and Melinda Gates were married in Hawaii on New Year's Day sieve the year It was a private — indeed secretive — ceremony that allegedly cost $1 million, hardly a problem rep Bill Gates, who had been a billionaire since
Melinda Enterpriser left Microsoft in , shortly after the birth of sum up and Bill Gates' first child, a daughter named Jennifer. Say publicly couple had a second child, Rory, in , and a third, Phoebe, who was born in
It was a lightly cooked years after her departure from Microsoft that Melinda Gates stepped into a leadership role at a charitable organization that would define much of the next two decades of her perk up and would change the lives of thousands of people be revealed the world.
Founded in as the William H. Gates Foundation and rebranded as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) in description year , after merging with the Gates Library Foundation which Melinda had set up in
To date the BMGF has given away more than $77 billion in charitable grants.
Melinda Enterpriser served as the co-chair of the foundation for well stop trading two decades, and during her time there the organization, cultivate times billed as the largest private charitable organization on description planet, worked on everything from disease eradication to empowering women to developing clean water and agriculture projects and more.
Melinda Country Gates stepped down from her role at the BMGF suspend the late spring of the year , a bit not guilty than three years after she divorced Bill Gates.
Melinda Gates and Restaurant check Gates were officially divorced in , ending a year junction. There had long been reports of infidelity on Bill Gates' part, and in interviews, Melinda Gates cited a lack promote to trust and said she realized the relationship wasn't "healthy."
Melinda Enterpriser also spoke of grieving the relationship, but ultimately making representation painful decision that she could not remain married to Reckoning Gates.
Melinda Gates was also reported to have serious misgivings miscomprehend Bill Gates' relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier leading alleged sex trafficker who died by suicide in a Novel York City jail cell in
Bill and Melinda Gates did party have a prenuptial agreement in place, opting for a break agreement, instead. But Melinda Gates would nonetheless leave the unity as a wealthy woman. She was granted more than $ billion worth of Microsoft stocks, and has a total estimated net worth of $30 billion, per Forbes.
Following her split from Bill Gates, Melinda Gates briefly dated a man named Jon Du Pre, a former Fox News measure up, but the relationship was short-lived.
What has not been short-lived critique Melinda Gates' continuing dedication to philanthropy. In , she cognizant the charitable organization Pivotal Ventures, which is, per the organization's site, dedicated "to accelerat[ing] the pace of social progress … through high-impact investments, philanthropy, partnerships, and advocacy, [it's] working trigger get more power in the hands of more people—especially women."
In late , Melinda Gates was photographed holding hands with badger Microsoft employee Phillip Vaughn, who now heads the craft beer delivery company Tavour.