Melinda French Gates

 French Gates's first position was tutoring children in mathematics and programming computers. Following graduation, she was a marketing manager with Microsoft and was responsible for the development of multimedia software. They included Cinemania, Encarta, Publisher, Microsoft Bob, Money, Works (Macintosh) and Word. Expedia was her first job. French Gates was named General Manager of Information Products in the early 1990s. She was there until the year 1996. She resigned from Microsoft that year, reportedly to concentrate on having the family. French Gates served as a member of Duke University's Board of Trustees from 1996 to 2003. Since 2004, she's been an active part of the Graham Holdings Board of Directors (formerly The Washington Post Company). She also attends the Bilderberg Group annual conference. French Gates also served on Drugstore.com's board of directors, however, she resigned in August of 2006 to focus on charitable causes. Since 2000, French Gates has been active in the public eye, stating "As I considered powerful women from history, I realized that they stepped out in some way".This has helped her work become recognized while also shaping and achieving the goals of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2014, Bill and Melinda had given US$28 billion of their personal wealth to the Foundation. In 2015, French Gates founded Pivotal Ventures as a separate, independent organization to identify, assist in the development and implementation of new solutions to issues that affect U.S. women and families.