Melinda French Gates

Co-chair, Board Member

Melinda French Gates is a philanthropist, businesswoman, and global advocate for women and girls. As co-chair of the foundation, she shapes and approves the organization’s strategies and overall direction, reviews results, and works with grantees and partners to further the foundation’s goal of improving equity in the United States and around the world.

Through her work at the foundation over more than two decades, Melinda has seen firsthand that empowering women and girls can transform the health and prosperity of families, communities, and societies. Her work has led her to focus increasingly on gender equity as a lever for change. In 2015, Melinda founded Pivotal Ventures, a company working to accelerate the pace of social progress in the United States.

Our role is to take risks that, if they pay off, could give millions of people the chance to make the most of their lives.
Melinda French Gates
Co-chair and Trustee

Melinda is the author of the bestselling book The Moment of Lift, in which she introduces readers to the inspiring women she has met during her work and travels around the world and shares her own journey to becoming an advocate for women and girls.

The second of four children, Melinda grew up in Dallas, Texas. She earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and economics and an MBA, both from Duke University. She spent the first decade of her career developing multimedia products at Microsoft before leaving the company to focus on her family and philanthropic work.

She has three children—Jenn, Rory, and Phoebe—and lives in Seattle, Washington.

See articles by Melinda French Gates

Binta Diao, Eden Gatesi, Dr. Marie-Angelique Sene, Yaye Souadou Fall, and Dr. Shivon Byamukama

Melinda French Gates highlights five women inspiring change in their communities in Rwanda and Senegal

The global advocate for women and girls shares the stories of some extraordinary women whose vision and ingenuity are creating new possibilities for their countries and industries.
By Melinda French Gates Co-chair, Board Member, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
A farmer picks crops in Basudevpur, India.

Helping informal women workers is key to jump-starting recovery

World leaders must take decisive action to support informal women workers in low-income countries, who have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic—and are also the key to a stronger economic recovery.
By Melinda French Gates Co-chair, Board Member, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Despite recovery efforts, women’s unemployment continues to grow

Data collected during the pandemic show just how much worse women have fared economically than men. Without urgent action, they will only fall further behind during the recovery.
By Diva Dhar and Rafael Diez de Medina

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