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Melinda Gates Research Paper

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Melinda Gates is a very impressive businesswoman. She has worked hard from the time she was in an all girls Catholic school to now as a co-chair of a major foundation. Her gender has had a strong influence on the media’s interest in her, in the way she worked to achieve her goals, and it affects her work she does today. Melinda Gates’ work as businesswoman is often overshadowed by the media’s interest in her personal life and marriage with Bill Gates but she has brought her strong mind to the work she has done in Microsoft in the past and to the foundation she takes charge of today. Melinda Gates grew up in a middle class family and is definitely a part of a “New Money Family” (Kendall, 9), she inherited nothing and all her money was made …show more content…

Several of these projects she was a part of have been quite successful such as Expedia and Microsoft Word. As successful as she was, Melinda Gates still had to work to draw a line between her business world and her personal world with Bill Gates. Melinda Gates told CNN in an interview that she had to set clear boundaries between work and home meaning that she didn’t discuss work at home with Bill Gates (Stout). Melinda Gates said that she thought that this allowed her to be effective with her team and for them to trust her as a leader …show more content…

A board of directors oversees the activities and direction of a company (investopedia.com). Melinda Gates was on the board of trustees for Duke University (“Coming On Board”), the board of directors for the Washington Post (Mufson), and the board of directors for Drugstore.com (web.archive.org). Today Melinda Gates’ main focus is on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. At the foundation Melinda Gates is very active. Her main role is to set the overall direction of the organization along with Bill Gates. She approves foundation strategies and reviews results but she also meets with politicians, partners, grantees, and goes to the places they are working in and she meets the people they are trying to help and lift up (gatesfoundation.org). According to CNN “a typical day at the office [for Melinda Gates] may include strategy reviews and one-on-one meetings, but a substantial amount of her work happens out in the field” (Stout). Her work as a businesswoman at the foundation has been highly influenced by her being a woman because one of her main areas of work is in building up women in communities and trying to provide contraceptives to women in need of them

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