Melinda French grew up in a Dallas suburb and attended a Roman Catholic private school. Her father was an engineer. She majored in computer science at Duke University, and hung on for an M.B.A. And then she went to Microsoft, the mecca for hard-charging high achievers. She did well there, eventually leading more than 100 employees in the consumer group. She owned a house worth almost $350,000 and held options worth millions. She even did a yeomanlike job helping roll out the ill-fated “Bob,” a Windows add-on that ultimately ranked among the company’s biggest flops.
After the marriage it was clear Melinda could not comfortably work for Microsoft. Not that motherhood (Jennifer Katharine was born in 1996) would suffice by itself. As cofounder of the Gates Foundations, “she is engaged as a strategist and participant,” says co-chair Patty Stonesifer. Despite the arrival of her second child, Rory, this past May, she still keeps active. She co-chairs a Washington State early-learning commission, and she serves on the board of directors for Internet start-up Drugstore.com. “I’d worked with Melinda at Microsoft,” says CEO Peter Nuepert, “and knew that she thought strategically and was very smart.”
Friends say that considering their vast wealth, the Gates lifestyle is unpretentious. Melinda can sometimes be spotted at McDonald’s with the kids. Though vacations can be well-organized ventures with several couples, sometimes they go for simple pleasures: “Melinda and I like to read the same books,” says Bill, “So we get two copies of everything.”
Being mistress of an intensely discussed $75 million mansion on Lake Washington wasn’t a hotly desired perk. “Melinda was saying ‘Maybe we shouldn’t move in, because [it may not] really feel like a home is supposed to feel’,” says her husband. But she hired her own architect-decorator to make it less of a combination bachelor pad and corporate retreat, and more traditional. A big drawback, though, is that the lakeside location allows tour boats to cruise by, forcing the house’s family indoors. You can even hear the guides on their microphones reciting (sometimes inaccurate) facts and figures about the Gateses’ residence.
When it comes to entertaining, she is a gregarious hostess–reminiscent, some have noted, of the gregarious matriarch of the family, the late Mary Gates. When Bill, as is his wont, sometimes zones out, his wife picks up the slack. “That’s the reason Melinda is so great for Bill,” says Dave Monson, a friend. “She’s so conscious of other people, she can carry the ball for him.”
As Bill Gates has moved from megamillionaire to megacelebrity, Melinda herself has become the point person in maintaining a private space. At restaurants she will sometimes seat herself on the outside of the table, to literally shelter her more recognizable husband from autograph seekers and frustrated Windows users. Just one more advantage of the anonymity she cherishes.
