| If you are successful, it is because somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a life or an idea that started you in the right direction. Remember also that you are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped. |
| In the developing world, it’s about time that women are on the agenda. For instance, 80 percent of small-subsistence farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are women, and yet all the programs in the past were predominantly focused on men. |
| But we also believe in taking risks, because that’s how you move things along. |
| We would be driving down the street in a place like Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and started to see, my gosh, the only people that have shoes are men. Why does that woman have a baby in her belly and one on her back, and she’s carrying a huge load of bananas? You start to ask these questions. |
| A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult. |
| All women, everywhere, have the same hopes: we want to be self-sufficient and create better lives for ourselves and our loved ones. |
| My background was computer science and business school, so eventually I worked my way up where I was running product groups – development, testing, marketing, user education. |
| Kids are falling through the cracks and nobody notices it. That to me is what’s wrong with the school system. |
Melinda Gates Biography
| Name | Melinda Ann Gates |
| Born | Melinda Ann French August 15, 1964 (age 54) Dallas, Texas, U.S. |
| Residence | Medina, Washington, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Duke University (BA), (MBA) |
| Occupation | Co-Chair and Founder, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation |
| Spouse(s) | Bill Gates (m. 1994) |
| Children | Rory John Gates, Jennifer Katharine Gates, Phoebe Adele Gates |
