Grizzly Bulls LogoGrizzly BullsHow it WorksCalculator🚀 PremiumBlog
Log In

Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index

⬅ # 174 Scott Farquhar|# 176 Robert Kuok ➡

# 175 Melinda French Gates 

$11.6B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 5/13/2024
$11.0M (0.09%)

# 175 Melinda French Gates 

$11.6B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 5/13/2024
$11.0M (0.09%)
OccupationCochair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Source of WealthMicrosoft
Age59
ResidenceMedina, Washington
Marital StatusDivorced
Children3
EducationBS, Duke University; MBA, Fuqua School of Business
Age-Adjusted Net Worth$12.4B
Melinda French Gates
Melinda French Gates
United States
Net worth: $11.6B

Self-Made Score 

Wealth History

Hover or tap to reveal net worth by year
Loading Chart

Biography

Career

Began her career as a tutor in mathematics and computer programming, later joining Microsoft as a marketing manager responsible for multimedia product development.
Contributed to the development of various Microsoft products, including Cinemania, Encarta, Publisher, Microsoft Bob, Money, Works, and Word.
Managed Expedia, a popular travel booking website, and served as General Manager of Information Products at Microsoft until 1996.
Held positions on Duke University's Board of Trustees, the Bilderberg Group conference, and the Board of Directors of Graham Holdings since 2004.
Co-founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with Bill Gates in 2000, focusing on philanthropy and giving over $59.1 billion of personal wealth to the foundation by 2022.
Founded Pivotal Ventures in 2015, an independent organization addressing issues affecting U.S. women and families.

Personal Life

Melinda Ann French was born on August 15, 1964, in Dallas, Texas, the second of four children to Raymond Joseph French Jr. and Elaine Agnes Amerland.
Raised Catholic, she excelled at St. Monica Catholic School and later graduated as valedictorian from Ursuline Academy of Dallas in 1982.
Developed an interest in computer science at a young age through exposure to the Apple II, sparking a passion for computer games and BASIC programming.
Earned a bachelor's degree in computer science and economics from Duke University in 1986 and an MBA from Duke's Fuqua School of Business in 1987.
Married Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in 1994, and they have three children: Jennifer, Phoebe, and Rory Gates.

Philanthropy

Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest private charitable organization.
Dedicated to advancing the foundation's mission of helping all people lead healthy, productive lives, with a particular focus on women's and girls' rights.
After the divorce, Bill Gates transferred at least $5 billion worth of stock in various public companies to Melinda.

Next Chapter

In her post-divorce mission, Melinda French Gates aims to close the funding gap for female founders through her investment and incubation company, Pivotal Ventures.

Writing

Debuted as an author in 2019 with the book 'The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World,' highlighting the importance of acknowledging women's unpaid work.
The book drew inspiration from feminist economist Dame Marilyn Waring's 'If Women Counted.'

How long would it take you to become as rich as Melinda French Gates?

If you started with $10,000 and invested an additional $500 each month at a 44.01% CAGR, it would take you 5 years to reach Melinda French Gates's net worth of $11.6B.

Is this realistic? It depends how closely the VIX-TA-Macro Advanced model performs to its history in the future. Since Grizzly Bulls launched on January 1, 2022, it's returned 40.45% compared to 10.08% for the S&P 500 benchmark.

Enter data in all but one field below, then calculate the missing value

Melinda French Gates is very wealthy, but what's stopping you from reaching that same level of success? As summarized in our five fundamental rules to wealth building, becoming wealthy in a modern capitalist economy is not complicated. There's actually only three variables:

  1. Your starting capital
  2. Your earnings after expenses
  3. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of your savings

Most people start with zero or very little, so if you weren't born into wealth, don't fret! The majority of the fortunate folks listed in our Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index came from middle class or lower backgrounds. The most distinguishing characteristic of the group is their ability to consistently earn a high CAGR on their savings.

Every billionaire has a unique strategy to achieve high CAGR. For Melinda French Gates, Microsoft is the primary source. Whether you choose to invest your savings in your own businesses or the businesses of others is not as important. The salient piece of the puzzle is ensuring that your hard-earned savings are generating sufficient CAGR to reach your long term goals.

Most people simply invest their money in index funds and call it a day. There's nothing wrong with this approach, but it guarantees relative mediocrity. To achieve greatness, you need to invest your money to earn higher than average returns. In the long run, better investors will always finish ahead of better earners.

Source: Grizzly Bulls reporting

Methodology: Grizzly Bulls' Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world's billionaires and richest people. Grizzly Bulls strives to provide the most accurate net worth calculations available. We pull data from public equity markets, SEC filings, public real estate records, and other reputable sources.

The index is dynamic and updates daily at the close of U.S. stock market trading based on changes in the markets, economy, and updates to Grizzly Bulls' proprietary algorithm of personal wealth calculation. Stakes in public companies are tracked daily based on the relevant closing prices of the underlying securities. Additionally, stakes in private companies, cash, real estate, and other less easily valued assets are updated periodically through careful analysis of insider transactions, comparable public company sales / EBITDA multiples, etc.

Edited by: Lee Bailey