The news of the divorce of Bill Gates, founder of the American company Microsoft, from his wife, Melinda French, who co-chairs the board of directors of the largest private charitable foundation in the world, with a capital of more than 35.8 billion dollars, has become the focus of all communities in the world.
Melinda French Gates is now worth an estimated $5.7 billion after a fresh set of stock was transferred from her ex-husband. The pair are in the process of dividing up their assets after their divorce was finalized.
The couple met at Microsoft in 1987 and married in 1994, but announced last May that they would end their marriage after 27 years saying, "We no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next stage of our lives."
The couple's net worth is about $152 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which means that each of them could be worth about $76 billion after the divorce. In his comments during an interview about his divorce, Gates said, "It's a sad event... Melinda’s a great person and that partnership we had come to an end is a source of great personal sadness."
Gates and Melinda agreed to continue running the Gates Foundation together. If after two years they decide that they cannot continue in their roles, Melinda will resign her position as co-chair and trustee. Gates will then buy her share of the foundation and she will receive resources from him to carry out her charitable work as part of the agreement.
Gates said Melinda's existence "would definitely be the best thing for the organization." He added, "Melinda has incredible strengths that have helped the organization be even better. We have always enjoyed working together."
The co-founder of the US computer software giant Microsoft has worked hard to promote health care and fight poverty around the world and is now seeking to focus his attention today primarily on how to save the planet.
Some time ago, Gates published a book entitled "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster?" in which Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical—and accessible—plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. In the introduction to his book, he says he has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change.
While promoting the book, Gates told BBC News: “Solving climate change would be the most amazing thing humanity has ever done.” He said that compared to the sacrifices and efforts required to properly thwart a major climate crisis that ends life, ending COVID-19 is “very easy.” He added, “The epidemic will end because these amazing vaccines are designed within a year, and we are trying to scale them up and adapt to the variants.”
On the other hand, not everyone thinks Gates is the right person to talk about the issue. Rolf Schaar of Greenpeace USA told Wired Magazine that while the book focuses on avoiding climate disaster, the author is not doing enough to change his personal habits. His investment in private jets and Microsoft's AI contracts with Exxon, Chevron, and BP to extract more fossil fuels add to the crisis, and do not solve it. Billionaires like Gates need to lead by example, or they will not be taken seriously.
Bill was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1955 and from a young age showed a keen interest in reading. His parents enrolled him in the Lakeside School, where he was introduced to the computer for the first time, grew his passion for computers and software technology, and began to hone his programming talents together with his friend Paul Allen.
While in the Lakeside School classes, Bill was able to write a program in the BASIC language that allowed computer users to play against the computer, and this was the first result of his passion for programming. He enrolled at Harvard University but left after two years to found in 1975 a software company called "Microsoft," which means small computer software.
Microsoft's software was popular among hobbyists who used to get copies of those programs before they were released on the market and distribute them for free. After disagreements with these hobbyists and disagreements with MITS over software rights, Bill Gates moved Microsoft's headquarters to Bellevue, Washington in 1979 when the company began creating software in various formats for multiple computer companies.
Read More:
Bill Gates Shares the 5 Books He’s Reading This Summer
Bill Gates: The Billionaire who invests his Fortune to Help Fight Illiteracy, Poverty and Disease
The Pandemic Won’t Save the Climate
