Photo: World Economic Forum / CC BY-SA 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
I find Melinda French Gates far more interesting than the billionaire's-ex-wife framing allows. She earned a computer science degree and an MBA at Duke, then shipped products at Microsoft in the late eighties when few women did, and she brought that same engineer's discipline to philanthropy, measuring outcomes instead of just signing checks. What I respect most is the post-divorce chapter: she kept her own name on the work and doubled down on women's health and economic power. Time honored her in 2005, but to my eye her real influence has only grown since she started operating solo.
Overview
Melinda Ann French Gates (née French; born August 15, 1964) is an American philanthropist. Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, she attended Duke University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in computer science and economics and an MBA. She joined Microsoft in 1987 as a multimedia product developer.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Melinda Gates
- Name (Japanese)
- メリンダ・フレンチ・ゲイツ
- Reading
- めりんだ・ふれんち・げいつ
- Born
- August 15, 1964 (age 61)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Leo / Dragon
- Origin
- Dallas, Texas, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- businessperson / patron of the arts / philanthropist / founder / entrepreneur
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Duke University
Awards & achievements
- 2002 Jefferson Awards for Public Service
- 2005 Time Person of the Year
- 2009 honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge
- 2013 honorary doctor of the Duke University
- 2013 Forbes list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women
- Padma Bhushan
- 2014 Chatham House Prize
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Businessperson — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-11
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.