“Bill [Gates] and I believe philanthropy can only be effective if it starts things and proves whether they actually work or not. That’s the place that governments often don’t want to, or can’t, work.”

Women are the centre of the family. It’s the woman who decides what’s eaten in the house, when to have the kids vaccinated; everything that has to do with the children’s health revolves around her.

My background was computer science and business school, so eventually I worked my way up where I was running product groups – development, testing, marketing, user education.

If you are successful, it is because somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a life or an idea that started you in the right direction. Remember also that you are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped.

With economic opportunity, sometimes it’s making sure that if they’re not in a place where they can have good jobs, that when they have economic opportunity, they have digital tools to use.

Around the world we have girls in primary school at about the same rate now as boys, but keeping them in quality secondary schools is where the world is lagging. I’m seeing a lot of countries look at this now.

Now, as smartphones are coming up, there are all kinds of apps that will start to be developed that will help women.

Government funding that’s coming from the United States is making a huge difference on the ground in the developing world. It’s really palpable – it’s making a huge difference saving lives.

What great changes have not been ambitious?

Women and girls should be able to determine their own future, no matter where they’re born.

A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.

The premise of this foundation is one life on this planet is no more valuable than the next.

If you want to lift up an economy in Africa, you basically start with the women.

If you invest in a girl or a woman, you are investing in everybody else.

If I really believe all lives have equal value, and if I use contraceptives, which I do, and if I’m counselling my son and my two daughters to use them, how am I not serving the women who don’t have access to the contraceptives they need?

When we better understand the realities of these women’s lives, we are able to design and deliver solutions that are more useful to them.

One life is worth no more or less than any other.

I want to work in water resources, as I think creating a string of check dams and utilizing water better is far more cost-effective than large stand-alone dams.