- She met Bill Gates, by chance, while both were present at a press conference in Manhattan.
- Co-founder, with Bill Gates, of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
- Microsoft employee (1987-1996).
- Along with Bono and Bill Gates, was named one of Time Magazine's Persons of the Year in 2005.
- She and her husband, Bill Gates, were both awarded the 2010 J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding.
- Mother of Jennifer Gates, Rory John Gates, and Phoebe Adele Gates.
- She is the second of four children. Melinda has an older sister and two younger brothers.
- She graduated from Duke University (economics) and Fuqua School of Business (business).
- Melinda and Bill were married in Lanai (Hawaii) where the 100+ guests included Warren Buffett, Katherine Graham, Paul Allen and Craig McCaw. Singer-songwriter Willie Nelson entertained the guests at the wedding reception.
- Individually, but at the same time as her husband, Bill, Melinda was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, by President Barack Obama, in a live televised ceremony held in the East Room of the White House, on November 22, 2016, along with nineteen other recipients, the the largest, and final Medal of Freedom ceremony of Obama's presidency. At this ceremony, the twenty-one total recipients, in alphabetical order, included: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elouise Cobell (posthumous award given to her son), Ellen DeGeneres, Robert De Niro, Richard Garwin, Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, Frank Gehry, Margaret Hamilton (as Margaret H. Hamilton), Tom Hanks, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper (posthumous award given to her niece), Michael Jordan, Maya Lin, Lorne Michaels, Newton Minow, Eduardo Padron (as Eduardo Padrón), Robert Redford, Diana Ross, Vin Scully, Bruce Springsteen, and Cicely Tyson.
- Merited a place in TIME magazine's "The 100 Most Influential People" issue with an homage penned by Sheryl Sandberg. (May 2017)
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content