The Woman Behind the Man

Being the wife of world’s richest man, Melinda Gates is considered by Forbes magazine as one of the most powerful women in the world. Melinda and her husband Bill founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where she spends much of her time.

Melinda Ann French was born in 1964 in Dallas, Texas. She studied economics and computer science at Durham, North Carolina’s Duke University. She earned his Master’s degree in Business Administration in 1987 at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

She worked at Microsoft as General Manager of Information Products where she met her future husband Bill. They got married on January 1, 1994.

As co-chairperson with her husband, Melinda is the strategist at the Foundation. She is responsible for pursuing and promoting issues the Foundation seeks to address. She heads the review for whatever results they achieve. Among the things the Foundation wants to achieve are the improvement of health conditions worldwide, eradication of poverty in poor nations, promotion of education and provision of technology to libraries.