The Convener
The room, the network and the deal, brings the right people together.
Melinda Gates reads as The Convener because her leadership model rests on assembling the right people, organisations, and governments around problems no single actor can solve alone. At the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation she did not simply write cheques. She built coalitions around global health and gender equity, drawing unlikely partners together across sectors and borders.
“And it helped me wrestle with that. And then I finally had to face my own sense of where do I have doubt in my life as a woman? What is that about? And then courage.”
“It is changing. So it has a long way to go. You have to kind of go country by country. But when I see Male leaders, whether it's a traditional leader of a village, whether it's a local religious leader, whether it's Prime Minister Trudeau or President Macron, talking about women and being willing to fund it or being willing to make cultur…”
“You know? But I think our kids see Bill and I work very hard. We don't have to work anymore. I mean, but we do. We work hard every single day. I mean, we take some vacations, so we take time off, but we work hard.”
“But that social justice grounding I got in high school, it just helped me really wrestle with my values early. And then I would say lastly, having three children, you constantly have to be thinking, what are my teaching my children that I want them to live out in the world? And am I living my life that way by what I say and I do?”
The David Rubenstein Show: “Melinda Gates”
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