BUSINESS
GATES OF GENEROSITY
Melinda Gates, the co-founder and primary driving force behind the most significant philanthropic entity in the world
I
n 1993, during Melinda French’s wedding shower, her mother, who was suffering from breast cancer at the time, read her an admonitory letter and the gist of which was: “from those to whom much is given, much is expected.” Her mother died a few months later, but her advice left an indelible mark on her daughter who now co-chairs the richest philanthropic entity in the world, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with an endowment in excess of $50 billion. Born Melinda Ann French on August 15, 1964, in Dallas, Texas, she is the second of four children born to Raymond Joseph French Jr., an aerospace engineer, and Elaine Agnes Amerland, a homemaker. She has an older sister and two younger brothers. As a practising Roman Catholic, she attended St. Monica Catholic School, where she was the top student in her class year before graduating as valedictorian from Ursuline Academy of Dallas in 1982. Melinda’s interest in computers developed while taking an advanced math class at the Ursuline Academy. This was further
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enhanced when at 14, her father brought an Apple II, one of the first personal computers available to the general public. She used the PC to play computer games and to learn the Basic programming language. Her mother, who regretted not having gone to college, placed a strong emphasis on her children’s higher education. So, the family invested in and managed rental properties as a means to pay for the children’s college tuition. Melinda earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and economics in 1986, followed by an MBA in 1987 at Duke University. Before graduating, Melinda was interning at IBM in the summer of 1986. She had informed a recruiter that she had an interview with a relatively new company called Microsoft. The recruiter strongly advised Melinda to take the offer “because the chance for advancement there is terrific.” Melinda took her advice and joined Microsoft Corporation in 1987 starting as a product manager, involved primarily in developing multimedia and interactive products.
