Our Founder

Melinda has spent over 25 years championing efforts to unlock a healthier, more equal future. Today, she leads Pivotal, a group of organizations she founded in 2015 to accelerate the pace of progress for women and young people in the U.S. and around the world. Previously, she founded and co-chaired the Gates Foundation, where, for more than two decades, she set the direction and priorities of the world’s largest philanthropy. Melinda is the author of the bestselling books The Moment of Lift and The Next Day, as well as the creator of Moment of Lift Books, an imprint publishing original nonfiction by visionaries working to unlock a more equal world.

Melinda grew up in Dallas, Texas, and attended Duke University, where she received a bachelor's degree in computer science and economics and an MBA. She spent the first decade of her career developing multimedia products at Microsoft before leaving the company to focus on her family and philanthropic work. Melinda has three children—Jenn, Rory, and Phoebe—and lives in Seattle, Washington.