Venturing out to start your own business can be an exciting but overwhelming experience, more so when the odds are stacked against you. Close to 70% of small businesses fail within the first 10 years. But as you get started and take those first steps, remember that every entrepreneur must start somewhere.
It is comforting to know that many of the most successful entrepreneurs came from modest beginnings. An entrepreneur who is worth turning to for inspiration is Melinda French Gates. She is a businesswoman and philanthropist and is one of the world’s most successful female entrepreneurs.
But how much do you know about Melinda French Gates?
Early Life and Career
Melinda Gates was born as Melinda Ann French on August 15, 1964. The second of four children, she grew up in Dallas, Texas with here family. Raymond Joseph Jr., her father, was an aerospace engineer who worked on the Apollo space program and her mother Elain Agnes Amerland was a stay-at-home mom.
When Gates turned 14 years old, her father purchased the Apple II computer, which was one of the first computers sold to consumers. She learned computer programming and convinced her parents to put it in her bedroom to play computer games.
Gates attended Ursuline Academy where her love for science and technology grew. Upon graduation from Ursuline Academy a year later, she went on to earn her bachelor’s degree in computer science and her master’s degree in business from Duke University. At Duke University, she accepted a role at Microsoft in product development.
At Microsoft, she developed multimedia products such as; Microsoft Cinemania, Word, Publisher, and Expedia.com. Eventually, she was promoted to General Manager of Information Products, a position she held until she left Microsoft in 1996. After leaving Microsoft, Melinda Gates served on the Board of Trustees for Duke University from 1996 to 2003.
Melinda Gates Marriage and Family
Melinda Ann French caught the eye of Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, and their meeting, four months after she joined his company, led to more than a working relationship; it led to a budding romance.
After seven years of dating, Bill and Melinda Gates were married in Hawaii on New Year’s Day in the year 1994. The couple had their first child, a daughter named Jenniffer in 1996, a second child Rory, in 1999, and a third, Phoebe, who was born in 2002.
Melinda Gates and Bill Gates were officially divorced in 2021, ending a 27-year union. There had long been rumors of infidelity on Bill Gates’ part. Melinda Gates was reported to have serious misgivings about Bill Gates’ relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and alleged sex trafficker who died by suicide in a New York City jail cell in 2019
Philanthropic Work
Together with her husband, Melinda Gates initiated her charitable undertakings in 1994, largely at the behest of Bill’s father, William H. Gates. Their first effort, the William H. Gates Foundation, pursued global health programs as well as projects in the Pacific Northwest, where they lived.
Three years later, they launched the Gates Library Foundation to benefit North American libraries. Next came the Gates Millennium Scholars Program, which directed $1 billion toward minority study grants. The couple consolidated their charitable interests in 2000 as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with a reported endowment of $17 billion.
Highly recognized for their giving, the Gates were named Persons of the Year by Time Magazine in 2005. Melinda French Gates currently leads Pivotal, which she founded in 2015. Pivotal works to advance women’s power worldwide.
