Who is Melanie S Walker? Glamorous neurosurgeon introduced Bill Gates to Jeffrey Epstein
In the wake of Bill Gates and Melinda French Gate's shocking divorce announcement after 27 years together, one narrative that hogged headlines was Gates' ties with Jeffrey Epstein. How or why the two were introduced was explained by Epstein's interest in the Gates Foundation - a charity run by the recently-divorced couple. And as chatter around Melinda's disapproval of the alliance rivaled hush talks about Gates attending the infamous parties hosted by Epstein, it has finally been reported who first brought them together. Identified as Melanie S Walker, the mutual acquaintance of Epstein and Gates is the wife of a former Microsoft executive.
News of Walker's involvement in the Gates-Epstein friendship comes after it was reported that this friendship had become a major ground of contention in the Microsoft co-founder's marriage to Melinda. The friendship was exposed in a 2021 New York Times report that alleged that Gates had visited Epstein no less than thrice at the disgraced financier's Manhattan townhouse. In a bombshell interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN, Gates opened up about his regrets over friendship with the convicted felon, who mysteriously died by suicide on August 10, while awaiting trial for child sex trafficking charges. Melinda too was allegedly furious about this friendship, as Epstein had already pleaded guilty to sex crimes against children in 2008. But the curious case of when this friendship began can be easily tracked if one notes when Walker walked into their lives.
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Who is Melanie Walker?
The glamorous neurosurgeon is a "clinical professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Washington School Medicine and sits on the executive board of the Stroke and Applied Neurosciences Center," describes the UW Medicine Neurological Surgery website. Currently the founder and director of the UW Clot Bank, Walker is a University of Texas Medical Branch graduate from class of 1998.
Obtaining surgical training in Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California, Walker had moved to Seattle to "complete neurology, vascular neurology, and endovascular neurosurgery residency and fellowship training at the University of Washington School of Medicine." Also known for completing palliative care training at Harvard Medical School, Walker has been on the clinical faculty at the University of Washington since 2006. The website also reveals she has served in various roles at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Health Organization, and the World Bank.
How Walker introduced Gates to Epstein
Walker was once hired by Epstein as his "science advisor", and has been reported to have brought the convicted pedophile into the multibillionaire's life after she was hired by the Gates Foundation. Married to former Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky, Walker had come across Epstein in 1992 while she was sightseeing in New York City, right after graduating college. The pedophile approached her at the Plaza Hotel with Donald Trump in tow, who owned the property at the time. Daily Mail reports that Walker had moved to New York shortly after and stayed at a Manhattan apartment owned by the financier after he told her he could get a modeling audition at Victoria's Secret.
After Walker finished medical school in Texas, Epstein hired her in 1998 as his science advisor while she was pursuing post-doctoral study at Cal Tech. Rolling Stone reports that Walker was quite grateful to Epstein for hiring her and the subsequent career that opened up. The publication adds that it was Epstein who discouraged Walker from taking up modeling as a career and encouraged her to finish medical school instead.
In 2006, Walker moved to Seattle to be with her now-husband Sinofsky. Shortly after that move, she was hired by the Gates Foundation as a senior program officer, and her husband rose through the ranks to become president of Microsoft’s Windows division. It was Sinofsky who had introduced Walker to Gates at a company barbecue in the early 2000s, Rolling Stone reports. Walker eventually became close to Gates's science advisor Boris Nikolic, whom the software mogul would allegedly frequently travel and socialize with. Walker was still close to Epstein at this time and introduced Nikolic to the financier. Nikolai in turn introduced Gates to Epstein and the rest is history.