There's no doubt that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is one of the most influential philanthropic organizations in the world, and even as co-founder Melinda French Gates steps down and pledges $1 billion in new donations to efforts that support women, girls, and reproductive rights, there is much to learn from her leading role at the foundation.
In April, Yahoo Finance spoke with Patty Stonesifer, a friend and mentor of French Gates, founding CEO of the Gates Foundation and former interim CEO of The Washington Post.
French-Gates and Stonesifer met at Microsoft, and Stonesifer said that during their time at the tech company, she and French-Gates relied on each other, despite the company's male-dominated executive team.
When approached about joining the Gates Foundation, Stonesifer said the opportunity was “just fascinating.”
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Video Transcript
Melinda French Gates recently announced she was stepping down from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and would be donating an additional $1 billion to efforts supporting women, girls, and reproductive rights.
Yahoo Finance sat down with Melinda's friend, mentor, and founding CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Patty Stonesipher, to reflect on French Gates' career and leadership from her time at Microsoft and the Foundation to the present day. Patty, what impresses you about Melinda?
When you're with Melinda, it's hard not to notice that she has a lot of discipline. She demonstrated that discipline from the beginning and her willingness to apply everything she's learned and knows, no matter what challenge she was faced with. She also had a great southern smile and a warmth that was immediately contagious, which was a bit of a rarity in the tech industry at the time.
How did you become her mentor?
So I think that proximity was really important. We became friendly colleagues and then we became close friends.
At Microsoft, we had a group of women who banded together to strengthen each other in what was actually a predominantly male leadership environment.
So it's a friendship as well as a co-teaching.
I learned a lot from Melinda, but I also learned a lot from each and every one of them.
Melinda comes up to Patty and says, “You know, I'm starting this foundation.”
What does that look like? What Melinda saw and what Bill saw as their responsibility was to use the resources that they had to try to bridge the gap between what they believed in and valued and what was being valued and done in other parts of the world, and that was a very inspiring vision and an opportunity to work with her and Bill again in that way.
But in a totally different environment, it was just fascinating.
So I immediately said yes.
It didn't matter to me if that meant flipping the model a little bit and working for Melinda, and I continued doing that for the next 10 years.
The foundation has a lot of resources behind it.
Of course, that’s a good thing, but you need the right people on your team to build it and make an impact on your cause.
You know, Melinda, and of course Bill, how do you build your team and make that team successful?
Well, they were great partners to me and Melinda was my day-to-day partner so she was at the forefront in that respect.
Bill has been extremely busy at Microsoft on many fronts assembling a veritable dream team.
Well, we followed people who were much better than us, who knew so much more about their field, and who were also wise, and instead of thinking about how to build their careers, they were thinking about how to become great ancestors.
But let’s think about how we use the resources and the opportunities and the blank piece of paper to think about what we want to do with our health.
What should we do about our education?
What can we do about early childhood?
Melinda stood with me and reassured me that people’s ideas, insights, and strategies would shape the future of this foundation.
And it was a really compelling opportunity. Honestly, I'd never assembled a team like that at the Gates Foundation. It was extraordinary, and Melinda's true deep listening, learning, and attention to nuance was essential to bringing together superstars from all walks of life.
I want to contribute to the success of the Gates Foundation.
You essentially watched Melinda grow as a person and as a leader.
What do you think her legacy is? Her first legacy would be the people who are able to walk more confidently because she played a significant role in their lives.
And it will start with her children, but it will also include many of us who worked with her and achieved so much more.
And for her, that circle continues to widen with her decisions, strategic decisions and allocation of resources that enable leaders in many sectors and with many missions to walk taller, achieve more, and envision a bolder future.
And if you have two or three people around you who are helping you achieve more on this planet in this limited time, it’s because of you and them working together.
It's truly a gift.
To her, that number represents tens of thousands, millions of people who are realizing their potential in a bigger way, on a bigger scale, because of her vision and the vision that the Foundation and Pivotal had, and the resources and the way they were given the resources to realize their ability to change the world.
