French Gates served as a member of Duke University's Board of Trustees from 1996 to 2003.Gates Joins Trustees , Fuqua.duke.edu; retrieved June 29, 2013. She attends the annual Bilderberg Group conference and has held a seat on the Board of Directors of Graham Holdings (formerly The Washington Post Company) since 2004. She was also on the board of directors at Drugstore.com but left in August 2006 to focus on philanthropic projects. Since 2000, French Gates has been active in the public eye, stating "As I thought about strong women of history, I realized that they stepped out in some way". This has helped her work become recognized while also shaping and delivering goals of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. By 2014, Bill and Melinda had donated US$28 billion of their personal wealth to the Foundation.Bill Gates philanthropy profile , forbes.com; retrieved April 23, 2016. In 2015, French Gates founded Pivotal Ventures as a separate, independent organization to identify, help develop and implement innovative solutions to problems affecting U.S. women and families.Pivotal Ventures-Who we are , pivotalventures.org; retrieved April 17, 2020.
