Melinda French Gates

She ran the world’s largest philanthropic foundation for 24 years.

In 1987, Melinda French Gates had just finished her degrees at Duke and was ready to start at IBM.

Then, during her final interview, she casually mentioned she had one more offer to consider from a “little company” called Microsoft.

Her hiring manager paused.

“If they offer you the job you should take it.”

So Melinda took the leap.

She started as a product manager, launching tools like Word and Expedia.

Within a few years, she became one of the few women in Microsoft’s leadership.

And then, she started dating the CEO.

In 2000, the couple co-founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Over the next two decades, they gave away nearly $83.3B to fight poverty, disease, and inequity.

Melinda led the charge on gender equity, traveling to remote villages, sitting with mothers, asking questions no one else bothered to ask.

She saw the unpaid labor, the forced silence, the missing data.

And she made it her mission to fix what society had normalized.

Then came the divorce.

In 2021, after 27 years of marriage, she walked away from one of the most high-profile relationships in the world.

She took $12.5B from the settlement.

And she took aim at the future.

In 2024, Melinda stepped down from the foundation and announced a $1B pledge to support women’s health, reproductive rights, and leadership.

She endorsed Kamala Harris.

Became a megadonor.

Doubled down on her belief that power belongs in women’s hands.

She also published a book (The Next Day) about what it means to start over.

After reinvention. After heartbreak. After walking away from a world you built.