Melinda Gates Story

Fortune has a great story on Melinda Gates.

While people keep giving Microsoft a bad rap , they will definitely be moved by the Melinda Gate's story. Both Bill and Melinda plan to give away 95% of their wealth to charity. They will follow Warren Buffet's principles "A very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing."

Among the foundations efforts are reforms to the American School System :- " New York City, though, shows what Gates money can do. At 43 new small high schools funded by the Gates Foundation, graduation rates are 73%, compared with 35% for the schools they replaced. The Gateses' partner here happens to be Joel Klein, who led the government's antitrust case against Microsoft a decade ago and now runs New York City's public schools."

How do they live:- " \... booting all hired help on weekends except for the security people and a sitter who arrives late in the day in case she and Bill want to exercise or go to dinner or a movie. Wednesday night is family swimming night. Friday night is family movie night.

The most successful joint venture is the GAVI Alliance, formerly called the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. GAVI has distributed vaccines (including tetanus, hepatitis B, and yellow fever) to 138 million children in 70 of the world's poorest countries. Thanks largely to this alliance, immunization rates are at all-time highs in the developing world, and more than two million premature deaths have been prevented.