Melinda Gates
Melinda Gates
Melinda Ann Gates, DBE is an American businesswoman and philanthropist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth15 August 1964
CountryUnited States of America
real believe opportunity
We started our foundation because we believe we have a real opportunity to help advance equity around the world, to help make sure that, no matter where a person is born, he or she has the chance to live a healthy, productive life.
running school marketing
My background was computer science and business school, so eventually I worked my way up where I was running product groups - development, testing, marketing, user education.
powerful long decision
Contraceptives unlock one of the most dormant, but potentially powerful assets in development: women as decision-makers. When women have the power to make choices about their families, they tend to decide precisely what demographers, economists, and development experts recommend. They invest in the long-term human capital of their families.
country thinking people
In the United States, there's definitely some controversy about birth control in general, and I think we needed to split the debate and have people realize that we actually agree as a country about contraceptives. Over 93 percent of American women say they use contraceptives, and they feel very good about it.
charity next foundation
The premise of this foundation is one life on this planet is no more valuable than the next.
optimistic past inspired
I am inspired by the women I meet everywhere I go. They have to work so hard just to make sure their families survive, but somehow they stay optimistic and do everything in their power to make the future better than the past.
foundation sometimes family-time
We set out what's going to be our work time versus our foundation time versus family time, and we'll reassess that... sometimes every week.
thinking risk backyards
We look in our own backyard and say, 'How do we help at-risk families, at risk youth? How do we think through some of the problems affecting the Pacific Northwest and make some change there?'
children talking issues
If we're going to make progress on this issue [of contraception], we have to be really clear about what our agenda is. We're not talking about abortion. We're not talking about population control. What I'm talking about is giving women the power to save their lives, to save their children's lives and to give their families the best possible future.
numbers years dating
After a number of years dating, we decided we were good partners.
people charity helping
Helping people doesn't have to be an unsound financial strategy.
way different different-ways
I learn in a different way. I learn experientially.
children kids
Despite the debunking, you have a small group in the last five years that hasn't wanted to vaccinate their children, for instance, for measles. Then, all of sudden, we got an outbreak of measles and kids were starting to die from measles.
believe government want
Bill [Gates] and I believe philanthropy can only be effective if it starts things and proves whether they actually work or not. That's the place that governments often don't want to, or can't, work.