Melinda French Gates

Co-chair and trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest private foundation in the world. Prior to her philanthropic work, she distinguished herself in business as a leader in developing many of Microsoft's multimedia products and retired from her position as Microsoft's General Manager of Information Products in 1996. Gates is a former member of the board of trustees of Duke University and is a former co-chair of the Washington State Governor's Commission on Early Learning. In 2005, Time magazine named her, along with her husband and Bono, as Persons of the Year. In 2006, she received the Spanish Prince of Asturias Award and the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle for worldwide philanthropy. In 2009 Cambridge University (U.K.) awarded her an honorary degree.