KEY POINTS
- Melinda French Gates has a net worth of $10.6 billion
- Melinda Gates is 185th in Forbes' real-time billionaires' list
- Melinda is the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Melinda French Gates, the co-founder and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ends 2023 (as of Dec. 27) with a fortune of $10.6 billion.
In Forbes' real-time billionaires' list, Melinda Gates is 185th as of Dec. 27.
In May 2021, Melinda's divorce from Bill Gates, founder of the world's largest software maker, was also recorded as the largest wealth transfer in the philanthropic economy. After the divorce, Bill Gates transferred stocks worth $5 billion in various public companies to Melinda.
The shares transferred were owned by Cascade Investments, which is Bill Gates's holding company, as per company filings. The $5 billion worth of stocks transferred accounted for nearly 9% of the value of Cascade Investments' total public holdings, per Bloomberg's estimates.
The 59-year-old Melinda earned her Bachelor's from Duke University and Master of Business Administration from Fuqua School of Business.
So, regardless of popular perception, Melinda had enough firepower in her to navigate through the fresh philanthropic and financial landscape after her separation from her billionaire husband.
Melinda continues to be the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a philanthropic venture that has granted more than $50 billion, along with her former husband and is also on the Board of Trustees. The Seattle-based foundation was backed by proceeds from Microsoft.
But Melinda's priorities might have changed as she deeply focuses on women's issues climate change and tackling systemic issues.
Pivotal Ventures, her investment and incubation company, embodies this shift. Launched in 2015, it has grown into a powerhouse, backing female-founded businesses across sectors like healthcare, technology and financial services. With $1.7 billion in committed capital, Pivotal Ventures aims to close the gender funding gap and empower women financially.
And Melinda has a solid conviction in founding Pivotal Ventures. The idea was to help dodge the "traditional male-dominated venture capital ecosystem," she told Reuters. This commitment to women's issues could have prompted Melinda to pledge $1 billion to gender equality in the U.S. over 10 years.
Melinda says her goal is to ensure that every woman and girl has the opportunity to reach their full potential. "That's a future I'm willing to invest in...it's a future worth fighting for," says she. Nearly half of the wealth of Melinda French Gates is from public holdings.
Melinda's priority, she proclaims, is not to give money, but to find solutions to the root causes of issues.
The Gates Family
Bill and Melinda Gates have three children–Jennifer, Rory and Phoebe. Melinda is also a grandparent after their daughter Jeniffer gave birth to a baby girl. Jeniffer's husband is Olympic equestrian Nayal Nasser. Jeniffer is also an equestrian and their love of sport probably brought them together in life.
Bill and Melinda wed in a secret ceremony, which cost them $1 million at Manele Bay Hotel in Hawaii, later rechristened Four Seasons Lanai. Bill's net worth at that time was $6.2 billion. Gates reportedly booked all 250 rooms in the Manele Bay Hotel, and to keep his 130 guests away from the prying media, he booked all helicopters to the island. Melinda is a former multimedia product development manager at Microsoft.
Melinda Gates has also authored a book "The Moment of Lift," in 2016. Melinda says nothing could be more effective in improving the lives of all on Planet Earth than investing in women and girls. The Moment of Lift is a compelling narrative of inspiring stories to illustrate Melinda's point.
