Bill Gates Profile
March 28th, 2010 | 
Author: Bill Gates Profile
Bill Gates has created the world’s largest company he is the world’s richest man and he has become the biggest charitable giver in history.
He may be a college dropout and “computer geek” but rivals have often underestimated his abilities in the cut throat world of business.
Despite the wealth and ruthless domination of the global computer industry Gates maintains it is the programming itself which is his abiding passion.
He stood down as chief executive of Microsoft in 2000 to focus on software development and the new challenges of the mobile internet age.
The onetime high school computer enthusiast whose worth
passed the 100bn mark in 1999 said he wanted to immerse
himself again in the work he loves most.
Early fascination
Gates has come to be known for his aggressive business
tactics and confrontational style of management.
He and his company have attracted a vast army of critics and enemies in recent years as their domination of the IT world has grown.
He was born on 28 October 1955 growing up with two sisters in Seattle. Their father William H. Gates II is a Seattle attorney and their late mother Mary Gates was a schoolteacher.
Gates began computing as a 13yearold at the city’s Lakeside school.
By the age of 17 he had sold his first program a timetabling system for the school earning him 4200.
It was at Lakeside that he met fellow student Paul Allen who shared his fascination with computers.
During Gates’ stint at Harvard the two teamed up to write the first computer language program written for a personal computer.
The PC’s maker MITS liked their work and the two friends established Microsoft in 1975 socalled because it provided microcomputer software.
Selfmade billionaire
A year later Gates dropped out of Harvard once it became clear that the possibilities for Microsoft were bright.
The big break came in 1980 when an agreement was signed to provide the operating system that became known as MSDOS for IBM’s new personal computer.
In a contractual masterstroke Microsoft was allowed to license the operating system to other manufacturers spawning an industry of “IBMcompatible” personal computers which depended on Microsoft’s operating system.
That fuelled further growth prompting the company to float in 1986 raising 61m.
Now a multimillionaire Allen had already stepped back from the frontline. But Gates continued to play the key role in the company’s growth with his vision for networked computers proving central to Microsoft’s success.
However his judgment has not always appeared flawless.
While sales and profits rocketed in the early 1990s he was seen to have misjudged on a grand scale the possibilities and growth of the internet.
Outside of Microsoft he also has interests in biotech companies sitting on the board of the Icos Corporation and has a stake in Darwin Molecular a subsidiary of Britishbased Chiroscience.
Family man
He founded Corbis Corporation which is developing a digital archive of art and photography from public and private collections around the globe.
His books The Road Ahead and Business the Speed of Thought have both hit the best seller lists.
Gates married Melinda on New Year’s Day 1994.Together they have three children Jennifer Katharine born in 1996 Rory John born in 1999 and Phoebe Adele born in 2002
He met his wife in 1987 at a Microsoft press event in Manhattan. She was working for the company and later became one of the executives in charge of interactive content.
Other interests listed on his official website are reading and playing golf and bridge.
Gates and Melinda have been giving increasing amounts of money to charity with his father running a foundation.
It has been endowed with billions to support initiatives in the areas of global health and education.
It is the world’s second richest philanthropic organization and within shouting distance of the world number one The Welcome Trust in the UK.
Bill Gates
Business Personality
Name at birth: William Gates III
Bill Gates is the head of the software company Microsoft and is one of the world’s wealthiest men. Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in the 1970s though Allen left the company in 1983. Gates oversaw the invention and marketing of the MSDOS operating system the Windows operating interface the Internet Explorer browser and a multitude of other popular computer products. Along the way he gained a reputation for fierce competitiveness and aggressive business savvy. During the 1990s rising Microsoft stock prices made Gates the world’s wealthiest man; his wealth has at times exceeded 75 billion making Gates a popular symbol of the ascendant computer geek of the late 20th century. In June of 2006 Gates announced that he would step down from daytoday involvement in Microsoft by July of 2008. He said he would then remain chairman of the Microsoft board while focusing on his charitable foundation the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Extra credit: Gates married Melinda French a Microsoft employee on 1 January 1994. The couple have three children: daughters Jennifer Katharine b. 1996 and Phoebe Adele b. 2002 and son Rory John b. 1999… Gates’s personal chartiable initiative the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has focused on global health issues especially on preventing malaria and AIDS in poor countries; in 2005 ABC News reported that he had given away over six billion dollars in the previous five years… For their philanthropic activities Time magazine named Bill and Melinda Gates along with rock star and activist Bono its Persons of the Year for 2005.
About the writer: Karina Gallo is a fulltime handcrafter of artisan soaps. She currently lives in New York City and her bath and beauty items can be found on www.SoapThatMakesScents.com
Related posts:
Posted in e-commerce