Three Ms come to mind when I hear the name Bill Gates: Microsoft, money, and Melinda.
The first made him wealthy, the second keeps him in the news, and the third recently opened up to Fortune for her first-ever profile! Besides talking to Fortune, Melinda has been dedicating 30 hours a week to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She explained her time commitment when she said, “As I thought about strong women of history, I realized that they stepped out in some way.”
Here are some interesting facts about the Gates:
- Melinda has a BA and a MBA from Duke University, while Bill was a Harvard dropout.
- She started working for Microsoft in Seattle when she was 22 years old, and four months into the job she was seated next to Bill at a dinner. She was attracted to his humor — what girl doesn't love a guy that makes her laugh — and he thought she was a looker.
- Melinda kept office life professional and was promoted several times at Microsoft, refusing to accompany Bill to any work-related events.
- She's a very compassionate woman and really got the ball rolling with their foundation work. The foundation has already given away $14.4 billion.
- Melinda says she and Bill will follow Warren Buffett's philosophy in considering the distribution of their weatlh: "A very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing."
Three more so, read more
Free People
I love powerful women...it's a gay thing =)
1She seems like a very smart women haha!
2I love that last quote. It's on the money.
There's a great book on rich kids called
The Price of Privilege.
3Go Melinda!
4i love that last quite too. AWESOME
5The Hiltons can learn from her.
6She sounds fantastic! I have to say, I love seeing a very rich man married to a smart, kind, capable woman who was in the picture *before* he became wealthy.
7Melinda rocks! she deserves more credit in life
8I love the picture...singin' in the rain...
9i love the last quote, as well. melinda gates is a great role model.
10she's so awesome. i love that she saw an opportunity to truly make a difference in the world in simple, yet innovative ways and she's made that into an influential organization with a huge reach. go Melinda!
11A lot of people give Melinda crap because she has an MBA and she doesn't use it the way it should be used, blah, blah, blah, but I really admire her.
She knows what she wants, she can get what she wants because she is smart and works hard for it, she doesn't let her husband overshadow her, and on top of it all, she is kind, generous and so giving!
Several well-to-do families should take note of the Gates family and a few other families when it comes to leaving your children with fortunes.
Carnegie wrote that leaving your fortunes to your family is greedy and no good can come of it, and I agree with him.
12Wow, what a great lady!
13what an incredible role model... bill too! they both seem so down to earth and level headed, despite being so incredibly rich!
14For a couple who have a heated driveway in a place that doesn't really snow they sure do seem to have their heads on straight!
15she sounds great! that foundation gives away a heck of a lot of money - not every rich family does this, thats for sure!
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