$ cat ./records/gates-meets-melinda-french-at-microsoft-1987.txt
Gates meets Melinda French at Microsoft
[RECORD.TXT] · cat --full
Bill Gates met Melinda French in 1987, shortly after she joined Microsoft as a product manager, when the two were seated together at a company dinner in New York. They began dating, kept the relationship private for years, and married on January 1, 1994, on the Hawaiian island of Lanai. Their partnership would extend far beyond marriage into the co-founding of the world's largest private philanthropy, until their divorce in 2021.
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Related Accomplishments
1990s
Gates keeps a collection of rare and classic cars
Despite his reputation for frugality in some areas, Bill Gates has long indulged a passion for cars, assembling a collection that has included several Porsches — among them the 911 he has owned for decades and the storied 959 — as well as other classics. His automotive tastes, and the saga of importing the then-illegal 959, are among the more colorful footnotes of his personal life.
1990s
Gates retreats for solitary, twice-yearly 'Think Weeks'
For years Bill Gates retreated twice a year to a secluded cabin for a solitary 'Think Week,' during which he read stacks of papers, books, and employee proposals with no interruptions, emerging with strategic memos that shaped Microsoft's direction. The ritual became famous as a model of deep, focused thinking by a busy executive, and was credited with helping spark major pivots — including Microsoft's embrace of the internet. Gates carried the habit of voracious, deliberate reading into his philanthropy.
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