Melinda French Gates

Melinda Ann French Gates (born August 15, 1964) is an American philanthropist. She grew up in Dallas, Texas, and went to Duke University, where she got a bachelor’s degree in computer science and economics as well as an MBA. In 1987, she started working at Microsoft as a multimedia product developer. That same year, she began dating Bill Gates, Microsoft’s co-founder and then-CEO. They married in 1994, had three children, and divorced in 2021. From 2000 until 2024, she co-chaired the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with Gates—the largest private charity in the world. Their philanthropy, focused on global health, development, and education, earned them honors like the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom and the French Legion of Honour. After French Gates stepped down as co-chair in 2024, the foundation was renamed the Gates Foundation, with Bill Gates as its sole chair. As part of her divorce, she received $12.5 billion to use for her own philanthropy, which she has said will center on women and families. She has become a major donor to the Democratic Party, particularly on abortion rights, and backed Kamala Harris in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. In 2025, she released a memoir titled *The Next Day: Transition, Change and Moving Forward*. Forbes regularly lists her as one of the world’s most powerful women, and the BBC named her one of its 100 women of 2021. As of February 2026, Forbes estimates her net worth at $30.4 billion, making her the 72nd richest person globally.

**Early life and education** Melinda Ann French was born on August 15, 1964, in Dallas, Texas, the second of four children. Her father, Raymond Joseph French Jr., worked as an aerospace engineer, and her mother, Elaine Agnes Amerland, was a homemaker. She has an older sister and two younger brothers. Raised Catholic, she attended St. Monica Catholic School, where she was class valedictorian. At 14, her father and a teacher named Mrs. Bauer—who pushed for computer science at the all-girls school—introduced her to the Apple II. That sparked her interest in computer games and the BASIC programming language. She graduated as valedictorian from Ursuline Academy of Dallas in 1982. She then earned a bachelor’s in computer science and economics from Duke University in 1986 and an MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business in 1987. At Duke, she was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority’s Beta Rho Chapter.

**Career** **Early career and Microsoft** Her first job was tutoring kids in math and computer programming. After graduating, she joined Microsoft as a marketing manager, overseeing the development of multimedia products like Microsoft Cinemania, Encarta, Publisher, Bob, Money, Works, and Word. She also worked on Expedia, which became a top travel booking site. In the early 1990s, she was made general manager of Information Products, a role she held until 1996. She left Microsoft that year, reportedly to focus on starting a family.

**Corporate directorship** French Gates served on Duke University’s board of trustees from 1996 to 2003. She attends the annual Bilderberg Group conference and has been on the board of Graham Holdings (formerly The Washington Post Company) since 2004. She also sat on the board of Drugstore.com but left in August 2006 to concentrate on philanthropy.

**Philanthropy** Since 2000, French Gates has been in the public eye, saying, “As I thought about strong women of history, I realized that they stepped out in some way.” This visibility helped her shape and advance the goals of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. By 2022, she and Bill had given $59.1 billion of their personal wealth to the foundation. On May 13, 2024, she resigned as co-chair, effective June 7, after which the foundation was renamed the Gates Foundation with Bill Gates as sole chair. In 2015, she founded Pivotal Ventures, an independent organization focused on innovative solutions for U.S. women and families. She committed $1 billion in funding in 2019 and another $1 billion in 2025. In October 2024, she partnered with Lever for Change (an affiliate of the MacArthur Foundation) to launch Action for Women’s Health, a grant competition offering $250 million for women’s health initiatives. French Gates, whose net worth was estimated at $30 billion in 2025, has pledged to give away most of her wealth.

**Writing** In 2019, she published her first book, *The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World*. Former president Barack Obama appeared in a comedy sketch to promote it. The book highlights how women’s unpaid work is often ignored, drawing on feminist economist Dame Marilyn Waring’s book *If Women Counted*. In 2025, she released *The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward*, also through Flatiron Books.

**Women in technology** Her experience in Microsoft’s male-dominated workplace inspired her to push for more women in computing. In September 2016, she said she wanted to increase workplace diversity, especially in tech, noting, “Every company needs technology, and yet we’re graduating fewer women technologists. That is not good for society. We have to change it.” She also spoke on this topic at the 2017 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

**Awards and recognition** In 1998, Melinda and Bill Gates were each given an Am...