Melinda French Gates

Melinda French Gates
Born	15 8 1964 (age 62 years old (as of 2026) ) (Forbes) Dallas, Texas, United States
Occupation	Philanthropist; investor
Known for	Co-founder and former co-chair of the Gates Foundation; founder of Pivotal Ventures
Spouse(s)	Bill Gates (divorced 2021)
Children	3 (Forbes)
Education	Duke University (BA; MBA, Fuqua School of Business)

American philanthropist; co-founder and former co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; founder of Pivotal Ventures

Melinda French Gates (born 1964) is an American philanthropist. She co-founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with her then husband, Bill Gates, and was its co-chair until June 2024.^[1]^[2] She founded Pivotal Ventures, a group of organisations that uses philanthropy, investment and advocacy to advance social progress for women and young people.^[3] On 20 October 2026 the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list ranked Melinda French Gates 67th in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$34.2 billion; Forbes lists the source of wealth as Microsoft.^[4]^[5] In the annual World's Billionaires list published in 2026, Forbes had ranked Melinda French Gates 74th, at US$30.3 billion.^[6]

Early life and career

Forbes records that she was born in Dallas, Texas, on 15 August 1964. It says she studied computer science and economics at Duke University and took an MBA there, at the Fuqua School of Business. Forbes notes that she was one of a small number of women at Microsoft when she joined in 1987.^[4]

Gates Foundation

On 13 May 2024 the Gates Foundation's chief executive, Mark Suzman, told staff that she was resigning as co-chair and would leave on 7 June. He said she would not take any of the foundation's work with her. The foundation would be renamed the Gates Foundation, with Bill Gates as sole chair. Suzman said she wanted her next chapter to focus on improving the lives of women and families, after years of watching women's rights being rolled back in the US and elsewhere.^[1] AP reported that under her agreement with Bill Gates she would receive US$12.5 billion for this work, paid by him personally rather than from the foundation's endowment. It also said the foundation's board had been considerably expanded after the couple announced their divorce in May 2021.^[2] Forbes says she held the co-chair role for nearly 24 years and did not give a reason for leaving.^[4] AP described the foundation as a major funder of global health, supporting Gavi, the World Health Organization and the Global Fund, and research on child malnutrition, maternal health, polio and malaria.^[2]

Pivotal Ventures

Pivotal says it works in the United States and internationally to speed up social progress for women and young people. It invests in funds and early-stage companies, many of them led by women, and supports partners pursuing a bipartisan policy agenda.^[3]^[7] AP noted that she already used Pivotal for some of her investments and gifts before leaving the Gates Foundation.^[2] Forbes reports that in 2024 she announced US$1 billion of giving for women's and girls' rights through 2026, and that she aims to close the funding gap for female founders.^[4]

Divorce settlement

Bill and Melinda Gates announced their divorce in May 2021.^[2] Forbes has revised its estimate of her divorce settlement over time. It nearly tripled its estimate, to US$29 billion, in October 2024, and now puts the settlement at about US$25 billion.^[4]

Political activity

Federal Election Commission records show itemised contributions under her name, with Pivotal or the Gates Foundation as employer. The largest recipient was the Harris Victory Fund. They are summarised below.^[8]

Across the 106 non-memo records retrieved for the 2022–2026 cycles, the filtered total is US$1,520,200 (a lower bound). The largest recipient committees, as named in the filings, were HARRIS VICTORY FUND (US$919,600), MAGGIE'S LIST (US$19,000), TAKE BACK THE HOUSE 2024 (US$18,200), BLUE HEN FEDERAL PAC (US$15,000), PURPOSE PAC (US$15,000).^[8]

Federal contributions (FEC Schedule A, itemised; lower bound)
Cycle	Total (US$, lower bound)	Records	Largest recipient committees (as filed with the FEC)
2022	$135,800	21	KANSAS DEMOCRATIC PARTY ($10,000); MURRAY VICTORY FUND 2022 ($10,000); CORTEZ MASTO VICTORY 2022 ($10,000); MICHIGAN DEMOCRATIC STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE ($10,000)
2024	$1,134,400	40	HARRIS VICTORY FUND ($919,600); TAKE BACK THE HOUSE 2024 ($18,200); NEW YORK MAJORITY FUND ($10,000); BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS IN DIVERSE GEOGRAPHIC ENVIRONMENTS PAC ($10,000)
2026	$250,000	45	MAGGIE'S LIST ($19,000); OSSOFF VICTORY FUND ($12,000); COMMITTEE FOR A DEMOCRATIC FUTURE ($10,000); BLUE HEN FEDERAL PAC ($10,000)

Wealth

Forbes gives Microsoft as the source of her wealth.^[4]

Wealth history

Forbes has included this entry in its annual World's Billionaires list in 5 of the editions from 2001 to 2026 checked for this profile, starting with 2022. The table gives the rank and estimated net worth in each annual list, and, where applicable, the rank and estimate in the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans.^[6]^[4]

Forbes estimates by list year
Year	World's Billionaires rank	Net worth (US$ bn)	Forbes 400 rank	Forbes 400 net worth (US$ bn)
2021	–	–	158	6.3
2022	411	6.2	143	6.4
2023	390	6.5	66	10.3
2024	188	11.1	34	29.0
2025	58	30.4	33	29.0
2026	74	30.3	30	34.6

International and political links

This section uses the same ten headings for every profile in this series. Only specific, sourced actions are included; company-level and foundation-level actions are labelled as such. Where nothing was found, the entry reads "No documented involvement found in sources checked."