Melinda French Gates is one of the richest women who is serving as co-chair of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Melinda Gates is 60-years-old and she is the ex-wife of Bill Gates co-founder of Microsoft.  Melinda Gates was married to Bill Gates but she ended their marriage after 27 years. While she inherited significant wealth from the marriage she chose to give much of it away for charitable purposes through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation She was born in 1964 in Dallas Texas. She excelled in high school and then decided to pursue computer science earning a dual degree in the field. She obtained both her undergraduate degree and an MBA from Duke University. Melinda joined Microsoft as an employee. It was reportedly said that she had also received an offer from IBM which she turned down. She worked on developing software products like Microsoft Word Cinemania and Publisher. Bill Gates certainly recognized Melindas hard work and success at Microsoft which led to their professional relationship evolving into a personal one. Bill and Melinda got married in 1994 in Hawaii after dating for seven years. It was reported that $1 million was spent on the wedding ceremony which certainly did not bother Bill Gates who had been a billionaire since 1987. In 2000 Bill and Melinda Gates rebranded the William H. Gates Foundation to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation has provided more than $77 billion in charitable contributions to date. The couple parted ways in 2021 and Melinda stepped down from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2024. Melinda received $6.3 billion in Microsoft stock and has a total net worth of $30 billion (Rs 2572926000000) according to Forbes.