Melinda Gates
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. Her work since has deepened that instinct, centering women-led organisations and proving that convening is itself a strategy.
“All philanthropy can be is that catalytic wedge. We can try things, we can experiment with our own money where you wouldn't want a government to, but then we have to prove it out and then it's up to government to scale up.”
“If we can help lift up all women, we will change the world. But there's a lot of forces pushing women down today.”
“The world doesn't actually collect data on abuse, and then we can go in and name it and recognize it and all commit to changing it everywhere in the world.”
The David Rubenstein Show: “Melinda Gates”
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