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Melinda Gates Age, Boyfriend, Husband, Family, Biography

Melinda Gates Age, Boyfriend, Husband, Family, Biography

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Hometown: Dallas

Age: 59 Years

Marital Status: Divorced

Bio/Wiki
Birth name Melinda Ann French check sources
Biography
Other Names Melinda Ann Gates, Melinda French Gates check sources
Wikipedia
check sources
Instagram
Profession(s) Businesswoman, Philanthropist, Global Advocate for Women and Girls
Famous For Being the former wife of the American business magnate Bill Gates
Physical Stats & More
Height (approx.) 5' 7" (170 cm)
Eye Colour Brown
Hair Colour Golden Brown
Career
Awards, Honours, Achievements • Melinda and Bill Gates received the Award for “Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged,” an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards (2002)
• Melinda and Bill Gates named Persons of the Year alongside Bono by Time (2005)
• Melinda and Bill Gates received the “Spanish Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation” in recognition of their world impact through charitable giving (2006)
• Melinda and Bill Gates awarded the “Insignia of the Order of the Aztec Eagle” or their philanthropic work around the world in the areas of health and education (2006)
• Received an honorary doctorate in medicine from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden (2007)
• Melinda and Bill Gates received honorary degrees from the University of Cambridge (2009)
• Awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Duke University as a tribute for her philanthropic commitment (2013)
• Ranked #3 in Forbes 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017 lists of the 100 Most Powerful Women
• Ranked #4 in Forbes 2012 and 2016 lists of the 100 Most Powerful Women
• Ranked #5 in 2020, and #6 in 2011, 2018, and 2019 Forbes lists of the 100 Most Powerful Women
• Awarded the UCSF medal (2013)
• Appointed an honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (2013)


• Melinda and Bill Gates jointly received India’s third-highest civilian honor, Padma Bhushan, in recognition of the ftheir philanthropic activities in India (2015)
• Melinda and Bill Gates received Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama for their philanthropic efforts (2016)


• Melinda and Bill Gates awarded France’s highest national award, the Legion of Honour, in Paris for their charity efforts by the French President François Hollande (2017)
• Ranked #12 in the list of 200 Most Influential Philanthropists and Social Entrepreneurs Worldwide by UK-based company Richtopia (2017)
• Awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal 2016 of the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN), Berlin-Brandenburg (2017)
Personal Life
Date of Birth August 15, 1964 (Saturday)
Age (as of 2023) 59 Years
Birthplace Dallas, Texas, US
Zodiac sign Leo
Nationality American
Hometown Dallas, Texas, US
School • St. Monica Catholic School, Dallas, Texas, US
• Ursuline Academy of Dallas, Texas, US
College/University • Duke University, North Carolina
• Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, North Carolina
Educational Qualification(s) • Graduate in Computer Science
• MBA with a focus in Economics check sources
LinkedIn
Religion Christianity
Caste Roman Catholic check sources
The Guardian
Hobbies Watching Soccer Matches
Signature
Relationships & More
Marital Status Divorced

Note: On 3 May 2021, Bill Gates and Melinda Gates announced their divorce after 27 years of marriage. check sources
BBC
The divorce was finalized on 2 August 2021. check sources
CNBC
Affairs/Boyfriends Bill Gates
(Business Tycoon)
Marriage Date Year 1994
Family
Husband/Spouse Bill Gates
Children Son: Rory John
Daughter(s): Jennifer Katharine Gates, Phoebe Adele
Grandchildren Her daughter Jennifer Gates welcomed her first child with her husband, Nayel Nassar, in March 2023.
Parents Father- Raymond Joseph French Jr. (an aerospace engineer)
Mother- Elaine Agnes Amerland (a homemaker)
Siblings Melinda has an elder sister and two younger brothers.
Favourites
Painter Mary Cassatt
Sculptor Janet Echelman
Singer Amy Grant
TV Show The Colbert Report (2005-2014)
Festival Christmas

Some Lesser Known Facts About Melinda Gates

  • Melinda Gates is an American businesswoman and philanthropist. She is also a global advocate for women and girls. Melinda is the co-chair of the “Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,” world’s largest private charitable foundation.

  • She grew up in a middle-class family in Dallas.

    Melinda Gates in childhood

  • Melinda was a brigh student in her high school days and always topped her class.

  • Although Melinda’s mother, Elaine, herself never went to a college, she was very particular about her children’s education. Her mother maintained her rental properties on the weekends to provide for her children’s school and tuition fee.

    Melinda Gates in her teens with her mother and grandmother

  • When Melinda turned 14, her father gifted her an Apple II (an 8-bit home computer).

  • While in high school, she was introduced to a math teacher named Mrs. Bauer by her father. While Melinda learnt advanced math from her teacher, she developed an interest in computer science and the BASIC programming language.

    Melinda Gates math teacher Ms. Bauer

  • While studying in the Duke University, Gates was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, Beta Rho Chapter.

  • During her graduation years, Melinda worked as a mathematics and computer programming teacher for a while.

  • After pursuing an MBA, Melinda joined Microsoft Corporation as a product manager in 1987. As a product manager, she worked on multimedia and interactive products like Cinemania, Encarta, Publisher, Microsoft Bob, Money, Works (Macintosh), Expedia, and Word.

    Melinda Gates ID Card

  • She rose to the position of General Manager of Information Products in Microsoft and resigned from the same in 1996 after working nine years in the company.

  • In 1996, she became a member of Duke University’s Board of Trustees. She held the position till 2003.

  • In 2004, Melinda’s name was added in the Board of Directors of The Washington Post company

  • She was also a Board of Director at Drugstore.com, but gave up the position in August 2006 to focus on philanthropy.

  • Melinda, along with her husband, Bill founded the charitable organization Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 in Seattle with an aim improve public health, education, and climate change.

  • For efficient working of her organization, in 2006, Melinda divided the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation into three major departments: worldwide health, global development, and U.S. community and education.

  • Since its incorporation in 2000, Bill & Melinda Foundation has worked to develop prevention strategies, provide vaccines and treatments for diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

    Melinda and Bill Gates in Cambodia during malaria screening and treatment program

  • In 2011, Melinda restated the mission of her foundation as “improving equity in four areas: global health, education, access to digital information via public libraries, and support for at-risk families in Washington State and Oregon.”

  • In 2012, Melinda granted $560 million to improve the access to contraception for women in poor countries.

  • She has worked hard to bring a change in the state of education in the United States. Her foundation also launched a Gates Millennium Scholars program through which it became easier for students to fund their studies.

  • In the past two decades, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has spent around $50 billion to combat poverty and diseases. Not only in the US, the foundation also works to improve the conditions of poor living in countries like India, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya.

    Melinda Gates during her visit to a Self Help Group in India

  • Her foundation is one of the largest private philanthropic foundation in the United States and the world with its net assets worth $43.3 billion (according to the 2019 full-year financials shown on its website).

    Melinda Gates during the Annual Employee Meeting of her foundation

  • Melinda has also founded a separate foundation named Pivotal Ventures whose aim is to identify, develop, and implement innovative solutions to problems affecting US women and families. The foundation was established in 2015.

  • In 2019, Gates launched her book “The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World.” The book is based on the link between women’s empowerment and the health of societies.

  • Melinda has been a sports fanatic since childhood. She used to play soccer in her high school and college days. Even today, she enjoys watching the game whenever she is free.

    Melinda Gates playing soccer in her high school days

  • Melinda had a conversation with Bill for the first time during a trade fair in New York. The couple started dating each other and got into a wedlock in 1994 in a private ceremony on the Hawaiian island of Lanai.

    Melinda Gates dancing with her father-in-law at her wedding to Bill gates

  • Talking about his relationship with Melinda in a Netflix documentary, Bill Gates said,

    We cared a lot for each other and there were only two possibilities: either, we were going to break up or we were going to get married.”

  • Recollecting how Bill made a list of the pros and cons of marrying her, Melinda said in an interview,

    Methodical it seems even in matters of the heart – writing a list on a whiteboard with the pros and the cons of getting married.”

  • Reportedly, the pair hired all the local helicopters on their wedding day to stop unnecessary traffic flying over their wedding venue.

  • It was during their vacation to Africa in 1993 that the duo decided to establish an organization for philanthropy work. The organization came to be known as the “Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.”

    Melinda and Bill Gates during their trip to Africa

  • Melinda is influenced by the work of the Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai .

    Melinda Gates with Malala Yousafzai

  • She is also a public speaker. In 2014, Melinda, along with Bill, appeared at Vancouver’s first TED conference to talk about their “Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.”

    Melinda and Bill Gates at TED conference in Vancouver

  • In May 2014, Gates was one of the participants of the talk on saving newborn lives at the World Health Assembly in Geneva.

    Melinda Gates at World Health Assembly in Geneva

  • In April 2015, She met the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and extended her support to improve sanitation and bring nutrition solutions for India’s most vulnerable.

    Melinda Gates with Indian PM Narendra Modi

  • In May 2021, the couple announced their divorce through identical tweets. Their tweets read,

    After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage. Over the last 27 years, we have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives. We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in the next phase of our lives. We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.”

A tweet by Bill Gates

References/Sources