Our Co-Chairs and Founders

• Co-Founder and Co-Chair
  Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mette-Marit

  

  H.R.H. Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway is engaged in a broad range of national and international issues, most notably HIV and AIDS-related work. A main focus for the Crown Princess is to strengthen youth leadership and form international partnerships in the global AIDS response. The Crown Prince and Crown Princess’ Fund identifies and supports projects that target young people most at risk. In 2010, the Crown Princess was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She is a patron of the Norwegian Red Cross as well as several other philanthropic organizations. H.R.H. Crown Princess Mette-Marit holds a Master’s degree in Executive Management from the BI Norwegian School of Management. She studied Development Issues at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London and trained at the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), where her focus was on HIV/AIDS. The Crown Princess is married to H.R.H. Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and is the mother of three children.
• Co-Chair
  Dr. Precious Moloi-Motsepe

  

  A successful South African businesswoman and philanthropist, Dr. Moloi-Motsepe trained as a medical doctor at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa and now serves as chairman, African Fashion International, and co-chair of The Motsepe Foundation and she is a member of the Giving Pledge. Through the Foundation, she works towards poverty alleviation and the empowerment of South African communities. Dr. Moloi-Motsepe is a member of The Harvard Kennedy Women's Leadership Board and The International Women Forum of South Africa. Her interests include: development of South African fashion designers; to contribute towards growth and consolidation of the fashion industry; to promote and develop young talent in South Africa; to promote and expose South African designers to the global fashion market. As co-chair, Dr. Moloi-Motsepe represents the next phase of growth for Maverick Collective to internationalise and engage with locally led innovators and philanthropists on the continent, particularly in Africa.
• Former Co-chair
  Melinda Gates

  

  Melinda Gates is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Along with Bill, she shapes and approves the foundation’s strategies, reviews results, and sets the overall direction of the organization. Together, they meet with grantees and partners to further the foundation’s goal of improving equity in the United States and around the world. Through her work at the foundation over the last fifteen years, Melinda has seen first-hand that empowering women and girls can bring transformational improvements in the health and prosperity of families, communities and societies. In 2012, Melinda spearheaded the London Summit on Family Planning, which adopted the goal of delivering contraceptives to an additional 120 million women in developing countries by 2020. Her work has led her to increasingly focus on gender equity as a path to meaningful change. The second of four children, Melinda grew up in Dallas, Texas. She received a bachelor’s degree in computer science and economics from Duke University in 1986 and a master’s in business administration from the Fuqua School of Business in 1987. After joining Microsoft Corp. that year, she distinguished herself as a leader in the development of multimedia products and was later appointed Microsoft’s General Manager of Information Products. In 1996, Melinda left Microsoft to focus on her philanthropic work and family. Melinda lives with her husband and three children in Seattle, Washington.

  A message from Melinda Gates
• Co-Founder
  Kate Roberts

  

  Kate is the Co-Founder of Maverick Collective and most recently, was Senior Vice President of Corporate Partnerships and Philanthropy at PSI. She has designed and led several highly successful public health initiatives, including YouthAIDS and Five & Alive, to increase public awareness around HIV and prevent the spread of the disease among young people. Before PSI, Kate co-founded and served as managing director of the promotion agency “141” in Eastern Europe, part of the Bates, Saatchi & Saatchi advertising network. In 2007, Kate was honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, where she serves on the Global Health Advisory Board and is the founding curator of WEF Global Shapers. She was also featured as a CNN Hero and received the Jack Valenti AIDS outstanding achievement award. In 2009, Vogue named her as one of its 100 women. Kate is an adjunct professor on social entrepreneurship at The George Washington University and an invited speaker at Aspen Ideas Festival, Davos, Wharton Business School, Columbia University, and Harvard Business School.

  A message from Kate Roberts