- Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, married Melinda French in 1994.
- They met at Microsoft when Melinda was brought on a product manager. She initially turned down Bill's request for a date at a company picnic.
- Today, they run the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has an endowment of $50.7 billion. On Tuesday, they released their 2019 annual letter, in which they broke down the nine "biggest surprises" of the past year.
Melinda French was less than impressed when her boss asked her out on a date.
It was 1987, and the recent Duke graduate had just joined Microsoft as a product manager. CEO Bill Gates approached her at a company picnic and asked if she'd be interested in grabbing dinner in two weeks. She responded, "That's not spontaneous enough for me," Fortune reported in 2015.
Fast-forward three decades, and Bill and Melinda Gates are married with three kids, worth $96.5 billion, and run a namesake philanthropic enterprise boasting a $50.7 billion endowment.
Here's a look at their marriage.
At the picnic, Melinda gave Bill her number and told him to call her closer to the day he had in mind.

Source: Business Insider
Instead, he called her up later that night with a wry question: "Is this spontaneous enough for you?" Turns out, it was.

Source: Business Insider
Melinda and Bill dated for seven years before they wed. Melinda told Fortune her mom didn't think that seeing the CEO was a good idea in the beginning.

Source: Business Insider, Fortune
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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