Speakers Melinda Gates: Philanthropist

Melinda Gates

Melinda French Gates is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Why you should listen to her:

As co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Melinda French Gates helps shape and approve foundation strategies, review results, advocate for foundation issues and set the overall direction of the organization.

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people's health with vaccines and other life-saving tools and giving them a chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to dramatically improve education so that all young people have the opportunity to reach their full potential. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.

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Quotes by Melinda Gates

  • “That's universal — we all want to bring every good thing to our children. But what's not universal is our ability to provide every good thing.”

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  • “Birth control has almost completely and totally disappeared from the global health agenda, and the victims of this paralysis are the people of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.”

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  • “If we're going to make progress on this issue [of contraception], we have to be really clear about what our agenda is. We're not talking about abortion. We're not talking about population control. What I'm talking about is giving women the power to save their lives, to save their children's lives and to give their families the best possible future.”

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  • “Our desire to bring every good thing to our children is a force for good throughout the world. It's what propels societies forward.”

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  • “If [women in Nairobi] can talk about [contraception] openly, and have this discussion out amongst themselves in public, we can too. And we need to start now.”

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  • “The fact that 98 percent of women in [the U.S.] who are sexually experienced say they use birth control doesn't make sex any less sacred. It just means that they're getting to make choices about their lives.”

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