William Henry "Bill" Gates III  1955

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates

      

Bill Gates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, 2008
Born 	October 28, 1955 (1955-10-28) (age 53)
Seattle, Washington
Residence 	Seattle, Washington, United States
Alma mater  Harvard University (dropped out in 1975, honorary degree in 2007)[1]
Occupation 	Chairman of Microsoft
Co-Chair of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Net worth ▲US$58 billion (2008)[2]
Spouse(s) Melinda Gates (1994–present)
Children  Jennifer Katharine Gates (1996), Rory John Gates (1999) and Phoebe Adele Gates (2002)

William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955)[3] is an American business magnate, philanthropist, author, the world's third richest person (as of February 8, 2008),[2] and chairman[4] of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. Gates was the richest person in the world for 15 consecutive years.[5] During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 8 percent of the common stock.[6] He has also authored or co-authored several books.

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a large number of industry insiders criticize his business tactics, which they consider anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts.[7][8] In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.

Bill Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January, 2000. He remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect. In June, 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie, chief software architect and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer. Gates' last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008, he remains at Microsoft as non-executive chairman.
Contents
[hide]

    * 1 Early life
    * 2 Microsoft
          o 2.1 BASIC
          o 2.2 IBM partnership
          o 2.3 Windows
          o 2.4 Management style
          o 2.5 Antitrust law violations
          o 2.6 Appearance in ads
    * 3 Personal life
          o 3.1 Philanthropy
          o 3.2 Recognition
          o 3.3 Investments
    * 4 Bibliography
    * 5 Notes
    * 6 References
    * 7 Further reading
    * 8 External links

Early life

Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, to William H. Gates, Sr. and Mary Maxwell Gates. His family was upper middle class; his father was a prominent lawyer, his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way, and her father, J. W. Maxwell, was a national bank president. Gates has one elder sister, Kristi (Kristianne), and one younger sister, Libby. He was the fourth of his name in his family, but was known as William Gates III or "Trey" because his father had dropped his own "III" suffix.[9] Early on in his life, Gates's parents had a law career in mind for him.[10]

At thirteen he enrolled in the Lakeside School, an exclusive preparatory school.[11] When he was in the eighth grade, the Mothers Club at the school used proceeds from Lakeside School's rummage sale to buy an ASR-33 teletype terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric (GE) computer for the school's students.[12] Gates took an interest in programming the GE system in BASIC and was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. He wrote his first computer program on this machine: an implementation of tic-tac-toe that allowed users to play games against the computer. Gates was fascinated by the machine and how it would always execute software code perfectly. When he reflected back on that moment, he commented on it and said, "There was just something neat about the machine."[13] After the Mothers Club donation was exhausted, he and other students sought time on systems including DEC PDP minicomputers. One of these systems was a PDP-10 belonging to Computer Center Corporation (CCC), which banned four Lakeside students—Gates, Paul Allen, Ric Weiland, and Kent Evans—for the summer after it caught them exploiting bugs in the operating system to obtain free computer time.[14]

At the end of the ban, the four students offered to find bugs in CCC's software in exchange for computer time. Rather than use the system via teletype, Gates went to CCC's offices and studied source code for various programs that ran on the system, including programs in FORTRAN, LISP, and machine language. The arrangement with CCC continued until 1970, when it went out of business. The following year, Information Sciences Inc. hired the four Lakeside students to write a payroll program in COBOL, providing them computer time and royalties. After his administrators became aware of his programming abilities, Gates wrote the school's computer program to schedule students in classes. He modified the code so that he was placed in classes with mostly female students. He later stated that "it was hard to tear myself away from a machine at which I could so unambiguously demonstrate success."[13] At age 17, Gates formed a venture with Allen, called Traf-O-Data, to make traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 processor.[15]. In early 1973, Bill Gates served as a congressional page in the U.S. House of Representatives.[16]

Gates graduated from Lakeside School in 1973. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test[17] and subsequently enrolled at Harvard College in the fall of 1973.[18] Prior to the mid 1990s, an SAT score of 1590 was equivalent to an IQ of about 170 (roughly the one in a million level),[19] a figure that would frequently be cited by the press.[20] While at Harvard, he met his future business partner, Steve Ballmer, whom he later appointed as CEO of Microsoft. He also met computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou at Harvard, with whom he collaborated on a paper about pancake sorting.[21] He did not have a definite study plan while a student at Harvard[22] and spent a lot of time using the school's computers. He remained in contact with Paul Allen, joining him at Honeywell during the summer of 1974.[23] The following year saw the release of the MITS Altair 8800 based on the Intel 8080 CPU, and Gates and Allen saw this as the opportunity to start their own computer software company.[24] He had talked this decision over with his parents, who were supportive of him after seeing how much Gates wanted to start a company.[22]

Microsoft

    Main articles: History of Microsoft and Microsoft

BASIC

MITS Altair 8800 Computer with 8 inch floppy disk system

After reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics that demonstrated the Altair 8800, Gates contacted Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), the creators of the new microcomputer, to inform them that he and others were working on a BASIC interpreter for the platform.[25] In reality, Gates and Allen did not have an Altair and had not written code for it; they merely wanted to gauge MITS's interest. MITS president Ed Roberts agreed to meet them for a demo, and over the course of a few weeks they developed an Altair emulator that ran on a minicomputer, and then the BASIC interpreter. The demonstration, held at MITS's offices in Albuquerque, was a success and resulted in a deal with MITS to distribute the interpreter as Altair BASIC. Paul Allen was hired into MITS,[26] and Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard to work with Allen at MITS in Albuquerque in November 1975. They named their partnership "Micro-Soft" and had their first office located in Albuquerque.[26] Within a year, the hyphen was dropped, and on November 26, 1976, the trade name "Microsoft" was registered with the Office of the Secretary of the State of New Mexico.[26]

Microsoft's BASIC was popular with computer hobbyists, but Gates discovered that a pre-market copy had leaked into the community and was being widely copied and distributed. In February 1976, Gates wrote an Open Letter to Hobbyists in the MITS newsletter saying that MITS could not continue to produce, distribute, and maintain high-quality software without payment.[27] This letter was unpopular with many computer hobbyists, but Gates persisted in his belief that software developers should be able to demand payment. Microsoft became independent of MITS in late 1976, and it continued to develop programming language software for various systems.[26] The company moved from Albuquerque to its new home in Bellevue, Washington on January 1, 1979.[25]

During Microsoft's early years, all employees had broad responsibility for the company's business. Gates oversaw the business details, but continued to write code as well. In the first five years, he personally reviewed every line of code the company shipped, and often rewrote parts of it as he saw fit.[28]

IBM partnership

In 1980, IBM approached Microsoft to write the BASIC interpreter for its upcoming personal computer, the IBM PC. When IBM's representatives mentioned that they needed an operating system, Gates referred them to Digital Research (DRI), makers of the widely used CP/M operating system.[29] IBM's discussions with Digital Research went poorly, and they did not reach a licensing agreement. IBM representative Jack Sams mentioned the licensing difficulties during a subsequent meeting with Gates and told him to get an acceptable operating system. A few weeks later Gates proposed using 86-DOS (QDOS), an operating system similar to CP/M that Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products (SCP) had made for hardware similar to the PC. Microsoft made a deal with SCP to become the exclusive licensing agent, and later the full owner, of 86-DOS. After adapting the operating system for the PC, Microsoft delivered it to IBM as PC-DOS in exchange for a one-time fee of $50,000. Gates insisted that IBM let Microsoft keep the copyright on the operating system, because he believed that other hardware vendors would clone IBM's system.[30] They did, and the sales of MS-DOS made Microsoft a major player in the industry.[31]

Windows

Gates oversaw Microsoft's company restructuring on June 25, 1981, which re-incorporated the company in Washington and made Gates President of Microsoft and the Chairman of the Board.[25] Microsoft launched its first retail version of Microsoft Windows on November 20, 1985, and in August, the company struck a deal with IBM to develop a separate operating system called OS/2. Although the two companies successfully developed the first version of the new system, mounting creative differences undermined the partnership. Gates distributed an internal memo on May 16, 1991 announcing that the OS/2 partnership was over and Microsoft would shift its efforts to the Windows NT kernel development.[32]

Management style

Bill Gates giving his deposition at Microsoft on August 27, 1998

From Microsoft's founding in 1975 until 2006, Gates had primary responsibility for the company's product strategy. He aggressively broadened the company's range of products, and wherever Microsoft achieved a dominant position he vigorously defended it.

As an executive, Gates met regularly with Microsoft's senior managers and program managers. Firsthand accounts of these meetings describe him as verbally combative, berating managers for perceived holes in their business strategies or proposals that placed the company's long-term interests at risk.[33][34] He often interrupted presentations with such comments as, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"[35] and, "Why don't you just give up your options and join the Peace Corps?"[36] The target of his outburst then had to defend the proposal in detail until, hopefully, Gates was fully convinced.[35] When subordinates appeared to be procrastinating, he was known to remark sarcastically, "I'll do it over the weekend."[4][37][38]

Gates's role at Microsoft for most of its history was primarily a management and executive role. However, he was an active software developer in the early years, particularly on the company's programming language products. He has not officially been on a development team since working on the TRS-80 Model 100 line, but wrote code as late as 1989 that shipped in the company's products.[37] On June 15, 2006, Gates announced that he would transition out of his day-to-day role over the next two years to dedicate more time to philanthropy. He divided his responsibilities between two successors, placing Ray Ozzie in charge of day-to-day management and Craig Mundie in charge of long-term product strategy.[39]

Antitrust law violations

    Further information: United States Microsoft antitrust case and European Union Microsoft competition case

Many decisions that led to antitrust litigation over Microsoft's business practices have had Gates's approval. In the 1998 United States v. Microsoft case, Gates gave deposition testimony that several journalists characterized as evasive. He argued with examiner David Boies over the contextual meaning of words like "compete," "concerned," and "we."[40] BusinessWeek reported:

    Early rounds of his deposition show him offering obfuscatory answers and saying 'I don't recall,' so many times that even the presiding judge had to chuckle. Worse, many of the technology chief's denials and pleas of ignorance were directly refuted by prosecutors with snippets of e-mail Gates both sent and received.[41]

Gates later said that he had simply resisted attempts by Boies to mischaracterize his words and actions. As to his demeanor during the deposition, he said, "Did I fence with Boies? ... I plead guilty. Whatever that penalty is should be levied against me: rudeness to Boies in the first degree."[42] Despite Gates's denials, the judge ruled that Microsoft had committed monopolization and tying, blocking competition, in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.[42]

The European Union Microsoft competition case is also a case brought by the European Commission of the European Union (EU) against Microsoft for abuse of its dominant position in the market (according to competition law). It started as a complaint from Novell over Microsoft's licensing practices in 1993, and eventually resulted in the EU ordering Microsoft to divulge certain information about its server products and release a version of Microsoft Windows without Windows Media Player.

Appearance in ads

Bill Gates decided in 2008 to appear in at least one commercial in a series of ads to promote Microsoft. This commercial, co-starring Jerry Seinfeld, is a 90-second talk between strangers as Seinfeld walks up on a discount shoe store (Shoe Circus) in a mall and notices Bill Gates buying shoes inside. The salesman is trying to sell Mr. Gates shoes that are a size too big. Mr. Seinfeld begins to inform him about a pair of shoes called Conquistadors that run "a little tight" and sells him on them in a size 10 (whereas the store clerk was attempting an 11). As Mr. Gates is buying the shoes he holds up his discount card, this card uses a slightly altered version of his own mugshot of his arrest in New Mexico in 1977 for a traffic violation.[43] As they are walking out of the mall, Jerry Seinfeld asks Bill Gates if he has melded his mind to other developers, after getting a yes, he then asks if they are working on a way to make computers edible, again getting a yes. Some say that this is an homage to Mr. Seinfeld's own show about "nothing" (Seinfeld).[44]

Bill Gates has also appeared in commercials in 2008, aimed at countering the popular Apple Mac "I'm a Mac" commercials. The "I'm a PC" commercials feature short back-to-back clips of various people explaining that they are a PC and one other trivial fact about themselves. Bill appears once in a run of the commercial which does not feature the trivial facts, and as such there is no trivial fact to associate with him on this page. The email addresses of several of the characters or actors in the commercials (it is unclear which, as it is also unclear whether all the actors play themselves) appear in the bottom right corner of the screen. Bill's is cited as "bill@windows.com". The actor who appears to resemble John Hodgman (from the "I'm a Mac" adverts) in the PC commercial is cited as "sean@windows.com" and his trivial fact is that he has become a stereotype.

Personal life

Gates married Melinda French from Dallas, Texas on January 1, 1994. They have three children: Jennifer Katharine(1996), Rory John(1999) and Phoebe Adele(2002). The Gates's home is an earth-sheltered house in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. According to King County public records, as of 2006 the total assessed value of the property (land and house) is $125 million, and the annual property tax is $991,000. Also among Gates's private acquisitions is the Codex Leicester, a collection of writings by Leonardo da Vinci, which Gates bought for $30.8 million at an auction in 1994.[45] Gates is also known as an avid reader, and the ceiling of his large home library is engraved with a quotation from The Great Gatsby.[46] He also enjoys playing bridge, tennis, and golf.[47][48]

Gates was number one on the "Forbes 400" list from 1993 through to 2007 and number one on Forbes list of "The World's Richest People" from 1995 to 2007. In 1999, Gates's wealth briefly surpassed $101 billion, causing the media to call him a "centibillionaire".[49] Since 2000, the nominal value of his Microsoft holdings has declined due to a fall in Microsoft's stock price after the dot-com bubble burst and the multi-billion dollar donations he has made to his charitable foundations. In a May 2006 interview, Gates commented that he wished that he were not the richest man in the world because he disliked the attention it brought.[50] Gates has several investments outside Microsoft, which in 2006 paid him a salary of $616,667, and $350,000 bonus totalling $966,667.[51] He founded Corbis, a digital imaging company, in 1989. In 2004 he became a director of Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company headed by long-time friend Warren Buffett.[52]

Philanthropy

    Further information: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Gates began to realize the expectations others had of him when public opinion mounted that he could give more of his wealth to charity. Gates studied the work of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller and in 1994 sold some of his Microsoft stock to create the William H. Gates Foundation. In 2000, Gates and his wife combined three family foundations into one to create the charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is the largest transparently operated charitable foundation in the world.[53] The foundation is set up to allow benefactors access to how its money is being spent, unlike other major charitable organizations such as the Wellcome Trust.[54][55] The generosity and extensive philanthropy of David Rockefeller has been credited as a major influence. Gates and his father have met with Rockefeller several times and have modeled their giving in part on the Rockefeller family's philanthropic focus, namely those global problems that are ignored by governments and other organizations.[56] As of 2007 Bill and Melinda Gates were the second most generous philanthropist in America, having given over $28 billion to charity.[57]

The foundation has also received criticism because it invests the assets that it has not yet distributed, with the exclusive goal of maximizing the return on investment. As a result, its investments include companies that have been criticized for worsening poverty in the same developing countries where the Foundation is attempting to relieve poverty. These include companies that pollute heavily and pharmaceutical companies that do not sell into the developing world.[58] In response to press criticism, the foundation announced in 2007 a review of its investments to assess social responsibility.[59] It subsequently cancelled the review and stood by its policy of investing for maximum return, while using voting rights to influence company practices.[60]

Recognition

Time magazine named Gates one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th century, as well as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005, and 2006. Time also collectively named Gates, his wife Melinda and alternative rock band U2's lead singer Bono as the 2005 Persons of the Year for their humanitarian efforts.[61] In 2006, he was voted eighth in the list of "Heroes of our time".[62] Gates was listed in the Sunday Times power list in 1999, named CEO of the year by Chief Executive Officers magazine in 1994, ranked number one in the "Top 50 Cyber Elite" by Time in 1998, ranked number two in the Upside Elite 100 in 1999 and was included in The Guardian as one of the "Top 100 influential people in media" in 2001.[63]

Gates has received honorary doctorates from Nyenrode Business Universiteit, Breukelen, The Netherlands in 2000,[64] the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden in 2002, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan in 2005, Harvard University in June 2007,[65] and from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, in January 2008.[66] Gates was also made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005,[67] in addition to having entomologists name the Bill Gates flower fly, Eristalis gatesi, in his honor.[68]

In November 2006, he and his wife were awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle for their philanthropic work around the world in the areas of health and education, particularly in Mexico, and specifically in the program "Un país de lectores".[69]

Investments

    * Cascade Investments LLC, a private investment and holding company, incorporated in United States, is controlled by Bill Gates, and is headquartered in the city of Kirkland, WA.
    * bgC3, a new think-tank company founded by Bill Gates.

Bibliography

Gates has authored two books:

    * The Road Ahead (1995)
    * Business @ the Speed of Thought (1999)

Notes

   1. ^ Lombardi, Candace (2007-06-08). "Bill Gates "graduates" from Harvard 30 years after dropping out". CNET News.com. http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Bill-Gates-graduates-from-Harvard-30-years-after-dropping-out/0,130061733,339278363,00.htm. Retrieved on 4 August 2008. 
   2. ^ a b "The World's Billionaires #3 William Gates III". Forbes. 2008-03-05. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/10/billionaires08_William-Gates-III_BH69.html. Retrieved on 2008-03-06. 
   3. ^ (Manes 1994, p. 11)
   4. ^ a b Chapman, Glenn (2008-06-27). "Bill Gates Signs Off". Agence France-Presse. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i8aV1bK5vmwLaw9wYr9nY5bFc4YA. 
   5. ^ Wahba, Phil (2008-09-17). "Bill Gates tops U.S. wealth list 15 years in a row". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSN1748882920080917. Retrieved on 2008-11-06. 
   6. ^ Gates regularly documents his share ownership through public SEC form 4 filings.
   7. ^ (Manes 1994, p. 459)
   8. ^ (Lesinski 2006, p. 96)
   9. ^ (Manes 1994, p. 15)
  10. ^ (Manes 1994, p. 47)
  11. ^ (Manes 1994, p. 24)
  12. ^ (Manes 1994, p. 27)
  13. ^ a b (Gates 1996, p. 12)
  14. ^ (Manes 1994, p. 34)
  15. ^ (Gates 1996, p. 14)
  16. ^ "Congressional Page History", The United States House Page Association of America. "The Page Program has produced many politicians, Members of Congress, as well as other famous men and women. Some of these include: the Honorable John Dingell, the longest serving Member of Congress, Bill Gates, founder and CEO of the Microsoft Corporation, and Donnald K. Anderson, former Clerk of the House."
  17. ^ (Lesinski 2006, p. 25)
  18. ^ (Gates 1996, p. 15)
  19. ^ http://www.eskimo.com/~miyaguch/MCReport/mcreport.html
  20. ^ http://www.forbes.com/forbes/1997/1013/6008040a_2.html
  21. ^ Gates, William (1979). "Bounds for sorting by prefix reversal". Discrete mathematics 27: 47–57. doi:10.1016/0012-365X(79)90068-2. 
  22. ^ a b (Gates 1996, p. 19)
  23. ^ (Wallace & 1993 59)
  24. ^ (Gates 1996, p. 18)
  25. ^ a b c . "Microsoft Visitor Center Student Information: Key Events in Microsoft History" (.DOC). Microsoft. Retrieved on 2008-02-18.
  26. ^ a b c d "Microsoft history". The History of Computing Project. http://www.thocp.net/companies/microsoft/microsoft_company.htm. Retrieved on 2008-03-31. 
  27. ^ (Manes 1994, p. 81)
  28. ^ Gates, Bill. "Remarks by Bill Gates" Waterloo, Ontario (2005-10-13). Retrieved on 2008-03-31.
  29. ^ Maiello, John Steele Gordon Michael (2002-12-23). "Pioneers Die Broke". Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2002/1223/258_print.html. Retrieved on 2008-03-31. 
  30. ^ (Gates 1996, p. 54)
  31. ^ (Manes 1994, p. 193)
  32. ^ "May 16, 1991 internal strategies memo from Bill Gates". Bralyn. http://www.bralyn.net/etext/literature/bill.gates/challenges-strategy.txt. Retrieved on 2008-04-04. 
  33. ^ Rensin, David (1994). "The Bill Gates Interview". Playboy. 
  34. ^ Ballmer, Steve (1997-10-09). "Steve Ballmer Speech Transcript — Church Hill Club". Microsoft. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/steve/churchillclub.mspx. Retrieved on 2008-03-31. 
  35. ^ a b Isaacson, Walter (1997-01-13). "The Gates Operating System". Time. http://www.time.com/time/gates/gates5.html. Retrieved on 2008-03-31. 
  36. ^ Bank, David (1999-02-01). "Breaking Windows". The Wall Street Journal. http://www.breakingwindows.net/1link3.htm. Retrieved on 2008-03-31. 
  37. ^ a b Gates, Bill. "Remarks by Bill Gates" San Diego, California (1997-09-26). Retrieved on 2008-03-31.
  38. ^ Herbold, Robert (2004). The Fiefdom Syndrome: The Turf Battles That Undermine Careers and Companies - And How to Overcome Them. 
  39. ^ "Microsoft Announces Plans for July 2008 Transition for Bill Gates". Microsoft. 2006-06-15. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/jun06/06-15CorpNewsPR.mspx. 
  40. ^ "Gates deposition makes judge laugh in court". CNN. 1998-11-17. http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9811/17/judgelaugh.ms.idg/index.html. Retrieved on 2008-03-30. 
  41. ^ "Microsoft's Teflon Bill". BusinessWeek. 1998-11-30. http://www.businessweek.com/1998/48/b3606125.htm. Retrieved on 2008-03-30. 
  42. ^ a b Heilemann, John (2000-11-01). "The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But The Truth". Wired. doi:10.1007/s11517-008-0355-6. PMID 18509686. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.11/microsoft_pr.html. Retrieved on 31 March 2008. 
  43. ^ http://www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/gatesmug1.html
  44. ^ http://adblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/08/1362333.aspx
  45. ^ (Lesinski 2006, p. 74)
  46. ^ Paterson, Thane (2000-06-13). "Advice for Bill Gates: A Little Culture Wouldn't Hurt". Business Week. http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/june2000/nf00613b.htm. Retrieved on 28 April 2008. 
  47. ^ "Bill Gates: Chairman". Microsoft Corporation. 2008. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/default.aspx?tab=biography. 
  48. ^ "Profile: Bill Gates". BBC news. 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3428721.stm. 
  49. ^ (Fridson 2001, p. 113)
  50. ^ Bolger, Joe (2006-05-05). "I wish I was not the richest man in the world, says Bill Gates". The Times. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/united_states/article713434.ece. Retrieved on 31 March 2008. 
  51. ^ "Microsoft 2006 Proxy Statement". Microsoft. 2007-10-06. http://www.microsoft.com/msft/reports/proxy2006.mspx. Retrieved on 2008-02-14. 
  52. ^ Fried, Ina (2004-12-14). "Gates joins board of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway". CNET. http://www.news.com/Gates-joins-board-of-Buffetts-Berkshire-Hathaway/2100-1014_3-5491312.html. Retrieved on 31 March 2008. 
  53. ^ "Flat-pack accounting". The Economist. 2006-05-11. http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6919139. Retrieved on 2008-04-01. 
  54. ^ Cronin, Jon (2005-01-25). "Bill Gates: billionaire philanthropist". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3913581.stm. Retrieved on 2008-04-01. 
  55. ^ "Our Approach to Giving". Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/AboutUs/OurWork/OurApproach/. Retrieved on 2008-04-01. 
  56. ^ (2006-01-01). "2005 Annual Report" (PDF). Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Retrieved on 2008-02-14.
  57. ^ The 50 most generous Americans
  58. ^ Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation, Los Angeles Times, 7 January 2006
  59. ^ Gates Foundation to review investments, The Seattle Times, 10 January 2007
  60. ^ Gates Foundation to maintain its investment plan, The Austin Statesman, 14 January 2007
  61. ^ (Lesinski 2006, p. 102)
  62. ^ Cowley, Jason (2006-06-22). "Heroes of our time — the top 50". New Statesman. http://www.newstatesman.com/200605220016. Retrieved on 17 February 2008. 
  63. ^ "Gates 'second only to Blair'". BBC News. 1999-09-26. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/457951.stm. Retrieved on 2008-03-30. 
  64. ^ Nyenrode Business Universiteit (2003-08-13) (in Dutch). Eredoctoraat Universiteit Nyenrode voor Wim Kok. Press release. http://www.nyenrode.nl/news/news_full.cfm?publication_id=599. Retrieved on 2008-02-18. 
  65. ^ Hughes, Gina (2007-06-08). "Bill Gates Gets Degree After 30 Years". Yahoo!. http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/hughes/13653. Retrieved on 18 February 2008. 
  66. ^ Svärd, Madeleine (2008-01-24). "Bill Gates honored with a doctor's cap". Karolinska Institutet. http://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=130&a=47838&l=en&newsdep=130. Retrieved on 2008-02-18. 
  67. ^ "Knighthood for Microsoft's Gates". BBC News. 2005-03-02. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3428673.stm. Retrieved on 18 February 2008. 
  68. ^ Thompson, F. Christian (1999-08-19). "Bill Gates' Flower Fly Eristalis gatesi Thompson". The Diptera Site. http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/Diptera/syrphid/gates.htm. Retrieved on 2008-02-18. 
  69. ^ "Proclamation of the Award". Diario Oficial de la Federación. http://diariooficial.segob.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=4936346. Retrieved on 2008-03-30. 

References

    * Fridson, Martin (2001), How to be a Billionaire: Proven Strategies from the Titans of Wealth, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0471416177 
    * Gates, Bill (1996), The Road Ahead, Penguin Books, ISBN 0140260404 
    * Lesinski, Jeanne M. (2006), Bill Gates (Biography (a & E)), A&E Television Networks, ISBN 0822570270 
    * Manes, Stephen (1994), Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry and Made Himself The Richest Man in America, Touchstone Pictures, ISBN 0671880748 
    * Wallace, James (1993), Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire, New York: HarperCollins Publishers 

Further reading

    * "The Meaning of Bill Gates: As his reign at Microsoft comes to an end, so does the era he dominated", The Economist, June 28, 2008.

External links

    * Biography of Bill Gates at Microsoft.com
    * Forbes: World's Richest People
    * Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
    * How I Work: Bill Gates

==============================================================================================

Bill Gates
Chairman, Microsoft Corp.
Published: May 30, 2002 | Updated: July 30, 2007

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/bio.mspx

William (Bill) H. Gates is chairman of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft had revenues of US$51.12 billion for the fiscal year ending June 2007, and employs more than 78,000 people in 105 countries and regions.

On June 15, 2006, Microsoft announced that effective July 2008 Gates will transition out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. After July 2008 Gates will continue to serve as Microsoft’s chairman and an advisor on key development projects. The two-year transition process is to ensure that there is a smooth and orderly transfer of Gates’ daily responsibilities. Effective June 2006, Ray Ozzie has assumed Gates’ previous title as chief software architect and is working side by side with Gates on all technical architecture and product oversight responsibilities at Microsoft. Craig Mundie has assumed the new title of chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft and is working closely with Gates to assume his responsibility for the company’s research and incubation efforts.

Born on Oct. 28, 1955, Gates grew up in Seattle with his two sisters. Their father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle attorney. Their late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent, and chairwoman of United Way International.

Gates attended public elementary school and the private Lakeside School. There, he discovered his interest in software and began programming computers at age 13.

In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University as a freshman, where he lived down the hall from Steve Ballmer, now Microsoft's chief executive officer. While at Harvard, Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer - the MITS Altair.

In his junior year, Gates left Harvard to devote his energies to Microsoft, a company he had begun in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Guided by a belief that the computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home, they began developing software for personal computers. Gates' foresight and his vision for personal computing have been central to the success of Microsoft and the software industry.

Under Gates' leadership, Microsoft's mission has been to continually advance and improve software technology, and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers. The company is committed to a long-term view, reflected in its investment of approximately $7.1 billion on research and development in the 2007 fiscal year.

In 1999, Gates wrote Business @ the Speed of Thought, a book that shows how computer technology can solve business problems in fundamentally new ways. The book was published in 25 languages and is available in more than 60 countries. Business @ the Speed of Thought has received wide critical acclaim, and was listed on the best-seller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and Amazon.com. Gates' previous book, The Road Ahead, published in 1995, held the No. 1 spot on the New York Times' bestseller list for seven weeks. 

Top row: Steve Wood (left), Bob Wallace, Jim Lane. Middle row: Bob O'Rear, Bob Greenberg, Marc McDonald, Gordon Letwin. Bottom row: Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood, Paul Allen. December 7, 1978.

Gates has donated the proceeds of both books to non-profit organizations that support the use of technology in education and skills development.

In addition to his love of computers and software, Gates founded Corbis, which is developing one of the world's largest resources of visual information - a comprehensive digital archive of art and photography from public and private collections around the globe. He is also a member of the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which invests in companies engaged in diverse business activities.

Philanthropy is also important to Gates. He and his wife, Melinda, have endowed a foundation with more than $28.8 billion (as of January 2005) to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of global health and learning, with the hope that in the 21st century, advances in these critical areas will be available for all people. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed more than $3.6 billion to organizations working in global health; more than $2 billion to improve learning opportunities, including the Gates Library Initiative to bring computers, Internet Access and training to public libraries in low-income communities in the United States and Canada; more than $477 million to community projects in the Pacific Northwest; and more than $488 million to special projects and annual giving campaigns.

Gates was married on Jan. 1, 1994, to Melinda French Gates. They have three children. Gates is an avid reader, and enjoys playing golf and bridge.

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How I Work: Bill Gates

http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/30/news/newsmakers/gates_howiwork_fortune/index.htm

Not much of a paper chase for Microsoft's chairman, who uses a range of digital tools to do business.
FORTUNE Magazine
Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect, Microsoft, U.S.A.
April 7, 2006: 5:17 PM EDT

NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - It's pretty incredible to look back 30 years to when Microsoft (Research) was starting and realize how work has been transformed. We're finally getting close to what I call the digital workstyle.

If you look at this office, there isn't much paper in it. On my desk I have three screens, synchronized to form a single desktop. I can drag items from one screen to the next. Once you have that large display area, you'll never go back, because it has a direct impact on productivity.

The screen on the left has my list of e-mails. On the center screen is usually the specific e-mail I'm reading and responding to. And my browser is on the right-hand screen. This setup gives me the ability to glance and see what new has come in while I'm working on something, and to bring up a link that's related to an e-mail and look at it while the e-mail is still in front of me.

At Microsoft, e-mail is the medium of choice, more than phone calls, documents, blogs, bulletin boards, or even meetings (voicemails and faxes are actually integrated into our e-mail in-boxes).

I get about 100 e-mails a day. We apply filtering to keep it to that level—e-mail comes straight to me from anyone I've ever corresponded with, anyone from Microsoft, Intel, HP, and all the other partner companies, and anyone I know. And I always see a write-up from my assistant of any other e-mail, from companies that aren't on my permission list or individuals I don't know. That way I know what people are praising us for, what they are complaining about, and what they are asking.

We're at the point now where the challenge isn't how to communicate effectively with e-mail, it's ensuring that you spend your time on the e-mail that matters most. I use tools like "in-box rules" and search folders to mark and group messages based on their content and importance.

I'm not big on to-do lists. Instead, I use e-mail and desktop folders and my online calendar. So when I walk up to my desk, I can focus on the e-mails I've flagged and check the folders that are monitoring particular projects and particular blogs.

Outlook also has a little notification box that comes up in the lower right whenever a new e-mail comes in. We call it the toast. I'm very disciplined about ignoring that unless I see that it's a high-priority topic.

Staying focused is one issue; that's the problem of information overload. The other problem is information underload. Being flooded with information doesn't mean we have the right information or that we're in touch with the right people.

I deal with this by using SharePoint, a tool that creates websites for collaboration on specific projects. These sites contain plans, schedules, discussion boards, and other information, and they can be created by just about anyone in the company with a couple of clicks.

Right now, I'm getting ready for Think Week. In May, I'll go off for a week and read 100 or more papers from Microsoft employees that examine issues related to the company and the future of technology. I've been doing this for over 12 years. It used to be an all-paper process in which I was the only one doing the reading and commenting. Today the whole process is digital and open to the entire company.

I'm now far more efficient in picking the right papers to read, and I can add electronic comments that everyone sees in real time.

Microsoft has more than 50,000 people, so when I'm thinking, "Hey, what's the future of the online payment system?" or "What's a great way to keep track of your memories of your kid?" or any neat new thing, I write it down. Then people can see it and say, "No, you're wrong" or "Did you know about this work being done at such-and-such a place?"

SharePoint puts me in touch with lots of people deep in the organization. It's like having a super-website that lets many people edit and discuss—far more than the standard practice of sending e-mails with enclosures. And it notifies you if anything comes up in an area you're interested in.

Another digital tool that has had a big effect on my productivity is desktop search. It has transformed the way I access information on my PC, on servers, and on the Internet. With larger hard drives and increasing bandwidth, I now have gigabytes of information on my PC and servers in the form of e-mails, documents, media files, contact databases, and so on.

Instead of having to navigate through folders to find that one document where I think a piece of information might be, I simply type search terms into a toolbar and all the e-mails and documents that contain that information are at my fingertips. The same goes for phone numbers and email addresses.

Paper is no longer a big part of my day. I get 90% of my news online, and when I go to a meeting and want to jot things down, I bring my Tablet PC. It's fully synchronized with my office machine so I have all the files I need. It also has a note-taking piece of software called OneNote, so all my notes are in digital form.

The one low-tech piece of equipment still in my office is my whiteboard. I always have nice color pens, and it's great for brainstorming when I'm with other people, and even sometimes by myself.

The whiteboards in some Microsoft offices have the ability to capture an image and send it up to the computer, almost like a huge Tablet PC. I don't have that right now, but probably I'll get a digital whiteboard in the next year. Today, if there's something up there that's brilliant, I just get out my pen and my Tablet PC and recreate it.

Days are often filled with meetings. It's a nice luxury to get some time to go write up my thoughts or follow up on meetings during the day. But sometimes that doesn't happen. So then it's great after the kids go to bed to be able to just sit at home and go through whatever e-mail I didn't get to. If the entire week is very busy, it's the weekend when I'll send the long, thoughtful pieces of e-mail. When people come in Monday morning, they'll see that I've been quite busy— they'll have a lot of e-mail.

Next: See the 2006 FORTUNE 500

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Some Interesting Facts about Bill Gates - The former world’s richest Billionaires

April 18, 2008 at 9:25 am (Around the World, Funny)
William Henry Gates III, a software executive, an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, the chairman of Microsoft and…… The world’s third richest man (as of 18/04/2008). Here are some attention-grabbing fact of Bill Gates other than the awesome Microsoft.

    * Bill Gates earns US$250 every SECOND, that’s about US$20 Million a DAY and US$7.8 Billion a YEAR!
    * If he drops a thousand dollar, he won’t even bother to pick it up bcoz the 4 seconds he picks it, he would’ve already earned it back.
    * The US national debt is about 5.62 trillion, if Bill Gates were to pay the debt by himself; he will finish it in less then 10 years.
    * He can donate US$15 to everyone on earth but still be left with US$5 Million for his pocket money.
    * Michael Jordan is the highest paid athlete in US. If he doesn’t drink and eat, and keeps up his annual income i.e. US$30 Million, he’ll have to wait for 277 years to become as rich as Bill Gates is now.
    * If Bill Gates was a country, he would be the 37th richest country on earth.
    * If you change all of Bill Gate’s money to US$1 notes, you can make a road from earth to moon, 14 times back and forth. But you have to make that road non-stop for 1,400 years, and use a total of 713 BOEING 747 planes to transport all the money.
    * Bill Gates is 40 this year. If we assume that he will live for another 35 years, he has to spend US$6.78 Million per day to finish all his money before he can go to heaven.
    * Last but not the least: If Microsoft Windows’ users can claim US$1 for every time their computers hang because of Microsoft Windows, Bill Gates will be bankrupt in 3 years !!!!!!! !!!!

biography
Birth date: 28 October 1955

Education: Public elementary school,private Lakeside School at age 12, Dropped out of Harvard University junior year.

Native City: Seattle, Washington

Little known fact: His family called him “Trey,” in reference to the III after his name.

Hobbies: Bridge, golf, reading, philanthropy.

Claim to renown: The computing software’s industry.

Net worth: Bill’s all-time high net worth is $58 Billion.

Preferred foods: Cherry Coke and spray cheese

Family: wife: Melinda; daughter: Jennifer, born 1996; son: Rory, born 1999.

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