Melinda Gates: foundation, divorce from Bill Gates, Microsoft, age and philanthropic life

Bill and Melinda Gates break up 0:31

(CNN Spanish) -

We present you a glimpse into the life of Melinda Gates, co-president of the world's largest philanthropic organization, who on Monday announced with Bill Gates the end of her marriage.

Melinda Gates personal data

• Date of birth:

  August 15, 1964

• Place of birth:

  Dallas, Texas

• Birth name:

  Melinda Ann French

• Father:

  Raymond Joseph French Jr. He was an aerospace engineer and worked in the Apollo space program

• Mother:

  Elaine Agnes Amerland.

  He dedicated himself to work at home

• Position in the family: She

  was the second of four children

• Husband:

  Bill Gates (January 1, 1994 to 2021) They announced their separation on May 3. 

• Children:

   Phoebe Adele, 2002;

  Rory John, 1999;

  Jennifer Katharine, 1996

• Education:

  He earned a BA in Computer Science and Economics in 1986, and an MBA in 1987, both from Duke University.

Bill and Melinda Gates break up 0:31

Start at Microsoft

• After graduation, Melinda Gates was offered a job at IBM, but turned it down.

• Instead, he agreed to join the team of what was, in the 1980s, a small software company: Microsoft.

• Melinda joined Microsoft in 1987. She was the youngest of the people hired at the time and the only woman in a group of ten new workers with business studies.

• She started as Marketing Director and developed multimedia products such as Microsoft Cinemania, Publisher, Word and Expedia.com.

• Later, Gates was promoted to CEO of Information Products.

• He held this position until he left Microsoft in 1996.

Job after Microsoft and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

• Melinda Gates served on the Board of Directors of Duke University, her home of studies, from 1996 to 2003.

• In 1997, he began his philanthropic work by founding the Gates Library Foundation with Bill Gates.

• Shortly after, this foundation changed its name to the Gates Learning Foundation, which gave computers with Internet access to public libraries in the United States.

• In 2000, the Gates Learning Foundation merged with the William H. Gates Foundation to become what is now known as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (or, in Spanish, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation).

• Gates is the co-founder and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Bill Gates joins the list of divorced billionaires 0:35

I work to empower women

• One of the most notable tasks Melinda Gates has had in her philanthropic work is the pursuit of gender equality.

• In a text she wrote for CNN, Melinda said that at the beginning of the Foundation and its work against poverty in the world, she did not think about the gender gap.

• "I'm embarrassed to say it now, but at the time I didn't think much about gender inequalities in relation to our anti-poverty work," she wrote.

• Now, gender equality is at the top of the Foundation's work areas, with Melinda Gates as the main figure.

• On this topic, in early 2019 Melinda published her book

  The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World

  .

• In addition, in 2015 he created the company Pivotal Ventures.

  Its main objective is the investment and incubation of projects that address wage inequality, in addition to supporting women entrepreneurs in the United States.

With information from CNN, the National Museum of Women's History and Duke University.

Bill Gates Foundation Melinda Gates