William Henry Gates III
Bill Gates
Born	October 28, 1955 (1955-10-28) (age 52) Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Occupation	Chairman, Microsoft Co-Chair (Retired), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Net worth	▲US$58 billion (2008)[1]
Spouse	Melinda Gates (1994–present)
Children	Three
Signature
Website Bill Gates

William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955),^[2] is an American business magnate, philanthropist, the world's third richest man (as of 2008),^[1] and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. Events 306 - Maxentius is proclaimed Roman Emperor. 312 - Battle of Milvian Bridge: Constantine Year 1955 ( MCMLV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar) Washington ( is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (B&MGF is the largest transparently operated Private foundation in the world founded by Bill and Melinda The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been Melinda French Gates (born Melinda Ann French on August 15, 1964) is the co-founder and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Events 306 - Maxentius is proclaimed Roman Emperor. 312 - Battle of Milvian Bridge: Constantine Year 1955 ( MCMLV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar) The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A business magnate, sometimes referred to as a mogul, tycoon, baron, or industrialist, is a person who has reached a prominent place in Philanthropy is the act of donating money goods services time and/or effort to support a socially beneficial cause with a defined objective and with no financial or material This list of the 100 wealthiest people is a list of the world's 100 wealthiest people as of February 11 2008, based on each person's total net worth Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Paul Gardner Allen (born January 21 1953 is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the individual shareholder with the most shares, with more than 9 percent of the common stock. A chief executive officer ( CEO) or chief executive is typically the highest-ranking corporate officer ( executive) or administrator The software architecture of a program or computing system is the structure or structures of the system, which comprise software components the externally visible properties A voting share (also called common stock or ordinary share) is a share of Stock giving the Stockholder the right to vote on matters ^[3] He has also authored or co-authored several books.

Gates was born in Seattle, Washington and excelled in school. He enrolled at Harvard College in 1973, where he met Steve Ballmer, who would later become CEO of Microsoft. Harvard College is the undergraduate section and oldest school of Harvard University, a Private university in the United States founded in 1636 by the Massachusetts Steve Anthony Ballmer (born March 24 1956 is an American Businessman. A chief executive officer ( CEO) or chief executive is typically the highest-ranking corporate officer ( executive) or administrator After reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, Gates contacted Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems and provided them with the Altair BASIC, and thus Microsoft was formed. Popular Electronics was a magazine started by Ziff-Davis Publishing in October 1954 for hobbyist and experimenters in electronics Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems ( MITS) was an Albuquerque, New Mexico company founded in 1969 by Forrest Mims and Ed Roberts Altair BASIC was an interpreter for the BASIC programming language that ran on the MITS Altair 8800 and subsequent S-100 bus computers This led to a partnership with IBM that required Microsoft to make the BASIC interpreter for the IBM PC. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology Later on, Gates struck another deal with IBM, allowing IBM to package Microsoft's PC-DOS software with IBM's personal computers in exchange for a fee paid to Microsoft for every computer sold. IBM PC-DOS is a DOS operating system for the IBM Personal Computer, sold throughout the 1980s and 1990s A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated This deal established Microsoft as a major player in the software industry.

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated 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. ^[4][5] 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. Philanthropy is the act of donating money goods services time and/or effort to support a socially beneficial cause with a defined objective and with no financial or material The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (B&MGF is the largest transparently operated Private foundation in the world founded by Bill and Melinda

Early life

Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, to William H. Gates, Sr. and Mary Maxwell Gates. Washington ( is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. William Henry Gates Sr (born William Henry Gates III on November 30, 1925) is a retired American Mary Maxwell Gates ( July 5, 1929 — June 9, 1994) served 18 years (1975-1993 on the University of Washington Board of regents His family was wealthy; 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. First Interstate BancSystem Inc, a financial holding company and its primary banking subsidiary First Interstate Bank are based in Billings Montana, United Way of America, based in Alexandria Virginia, is a Non-profit organization that works with nearly 1300 local United Way offices throughout the country in W. Maxwell, was a national bank president. The term national Bank has several meanings especially in Developing countries, a bank owned by the State an ordinary private Gates has one older 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. ^[6] Early on in his life, Gates' parents had a law career in mind for him. ^[7]

At thirteen he enrolled in the Lakeside School, an exclusive preparatory school. The Lakeside School is a private school in Seattle Washington, USA, for grades 5–12 ^[8] 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. Introduced about 1963, Teletype Corporation 's ASR33 was a very popular model of Teleprinter. A teleprinter ( A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that is used for entering data into and displaying data from a Computer or a Computing ^[9] Gates took an interest in programming the GE system in BASIC and was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. In Computer programming, BASIC (an Acronym for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of High-level programming languages 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. "^[10] After the Mothers Club donation was exhausted, he and other students sought time on systems including DEC PDP minicomputers. Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering American company in the Computer industry Programmed Data Processor (abbreviated PDP) was the name of a series of Minicomputers made by Digital Equipment Corporation. A minicomputer (colloquially mini) is a class of multi-user Computers that lies in the middle range of the computing spectrum in between the largest Multi-user 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. The PDP-10 was a Mainframe computer manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC from the late 1960s on the name stands for "Programmed Data Processor Paul Gardner Allen (born January 21 1953 is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates. Richard W 'Ric' Weiland ( 21 April 1953 &ndash 24 June 2006) was a computer software pioneer and philanthropist An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination ^[11]

At the end of the ban, the four students offered to debug CCC's software in exchange for free 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 FORTRAN, LISP, and machine language. In Computer science, source code (commonly just source or code) is any sequence of statements or declarations written in some Human-readable Fortran (previously FORTRAN) is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative Programming language that is especially suited to Lisp (or LISP) is a family of Computer Programming languages with a long history and a distinctive fully parenthesized syntax Machine code or machine language is a system of instructions and data executed directly by a Computer 's Central processing unit. 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. COBOL (ˈkoʊbɒl is one of the oldest programming languages still in active use 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. "^[10] At age 17, Gates formed a venture with Allen, called Traf-O-Data, to make traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 processor. Traf-O-Data was a partnership between Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Paul Gilbert A traffic counter is a device often electronic in nature used to count classify and/or measure the speed of vehicular Traffic passing along a given roadway The Intel 8008 was an early byte-oriented Microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel and introduced in April 1972 That first year he made $20,000; however, when his clients discovered his age, business slowed. ^[12]

Gates graduated from Lakeside School in 1973. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on his SATs, the standardized test for college admissions in the United States,^[13] and subsequently enrolled at Harvard College in the fall of 1973. Harvard College is the undergraduate section and oldest school of Harvard University, a Private university in the United States founded in 1636 by the Massachusetts ^[14] While at Harvard, he met his future business partner, Steve Ballmer, whom he later appointed as CEO of Microsoft. Steve Anthony Ballmer (born March 24 1956 is an American Businessman. He also met computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou at Harvard, with whom he collaborated on a paper about algorithms. Christos Harilaos Papadimitriou (Χρίστος Χαριλάου Παπαδημητρίου is a Professor in the Computer Science Division at the University of California ^[15] He did not have a definite study plan while a student at Harvard, and eventually took a leave of absence in 1975. ^[16] After Intel released the Intel 8080 CPU, Gates realized that this was the first computer chip which cost less than $200 that could run BASIC, making it the most affordable chip at the time to run inside a personal computer. The Intel 8080 was an early Microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. ^[14] He figured that this was the only chance he would get to take advantage of the timing, and decided to start a computer software company with Paul Allen. ^[17] He had talked this decision over with his parents, who were supportive of him after seeing how much Gates wanted to start a software company. ^[16]

Microsoft

Main articles: History of Microsoft and Microsoft

BASIC

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. Microsoft is a multinational computer technology corporation The History of Microsoft began on April 4 1975 when it was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Popular Electronics was a magazine started by Ziff-Davis Publishing in October 1954 for hobbyist and experimenters in electronics The MITS Altair 8800 was a Microcomputer design from 1975 based on the Intel 8080 CPU and sold as a mail-order kit through advertisements in Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems ( MITS) was an Albuquerque, New Mexico company founded in 1969 by Forrest Mims and Ed Roberts In Computer programming, BASIC (an Acronym for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of High-level programming languages ^[18] 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. Henry Edward Roberts (born 1942 was the founder and former president of Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS which built the Altair 8800, one of the An emulator duplicates (provides an emulation of the functions of one System using a different system so that the second system behaves like (and appears to 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. Altair BASIC was an interpreter for the BASIC programming language that ran on the MITS Altair 8800 and subsequent S-100 bus computers Paul Allen was hired into MITS,^[19] and Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard to work with Allen at MITS in Albuquerque in November 1975. Leave of absence (LOA is a term used to describe a period of time that one is to be away from his/her primary job while maintaining the status of employee. They named their partnership "Micro-soft" and had their first office located in Albuquerque. For partnership in cricket terminology see List of cricket terms A partnership is a type of Business entity in which partners ^[19] Within a year, the hyphen was dropped, and on November 26, 1976, the trade name "Microsoft" was registered with the USPTO. Events 43 BC - The Second Triumvirate alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus ("Octavian" later "Caesar Augustus" Year 1976 ( MCMLXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United States Patent and Trademark Office ( PTO or USPTO) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues Patents to ^[19]

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. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer 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. The Open Letter to Hobbyists was an Open letter written by Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, to early Personal computer hobbyists in ^[20] 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. ^[19] The company moved from Albuquerque to its new home in Bellevue, Washington on January 1, 1979 for more expansion room. Bellevue ( "BELL-view") is a rapidly growing city in King County, Washington, U New Year See also New Year The Ancient Romans began their consular year on January 1st since 153 BC Year 1979 ( MCMLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1979 Gregorian calendar) ^[18]

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. ^[21]

IBM partnership

In 1980 IBM approached Microsoft to make the BASIC interpreter for its upcoming personal computer, the IBM PC. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology 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. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Digital Research Inc (aka DR or DRI; originally Intergalactic Digital Research) was the company created by Dr CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers is an Operating system originally created for Intel 8080 / 85 based Microcomputers by Gary Kildall ^[22] 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 had made for hardware similar to the PC. 86-DOS was an operating system developed and marketed by Seattle Computer Products for its Intel 8086 -based computer kit Tim Paterson (born 1956 is an American Computer programmer, best known as the original author of MS-DOS, the most widely used Operating system Seattle Computer Products (SCP was a Seattle Washington computer hardware company which was one of the first manufacturers of Computer systems based on the Intel 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 $80,000. IBM PC-DOS is a DOS operating system for the IBM Personal Computer, sold throughout the 1980s and 1990s 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. Copyright is a legal concept enacted by Governments, giving the creator of an original work of authorship Exclusive rights to control its distribution usually for ^[23] They did, and the sales of MS-DOS made Microsoft a major player in the industry. MS-DOS (short for M icro' s' oft D isk O perating S ystem is an Operating system commercialized by Microsoft. ^[24]

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. Events 524 - Battle of Vézeronce, the Franks defeat the Burgundians Year 1981 ( MCMLXXXI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 Washington ( is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. ^[18] 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. Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Events 284 - Diocletian was chosen as Roman Emperor. 762 - Bögü Khan of the Uyghurs, Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology OS/2 is a computer Operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively 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. Events 1204 - Baldwin IX Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire. Year 1991 ( MCMXCI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar. Windows NT is a family of Operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993 In Computer science, the kernel is the central component of most computer Operating systems (OS ^[25]

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. Events 479 BC - Greco-Persian Wars: Persian forces led by Mardonius are routed by Pausanias, the Spartan Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) He aggressively broadened the company's range of products, and wherever Microsoft achieved a dominant position he vigorously defended it. Many decisions that led to antitrust litigation over Microsoft's business practices have had Gates' approval. United States antitrust law is the body of Laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior (monopoly and Unfair business practices. Business ethics is a form of Applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment In the 1998 United States v. Microsoft case, Gates gave deposition testimony that several journalists characterized as evasive. United States v Microsoft There were many civil actions taking place in May 18 1998 He argued with examiner David Boies over the definitions of words such as: compete, concerned, ask, and we. David Boies (born March 11, 1941) is a Lawyer and Chairman of Boies Schiller & Flexner. ^[26] 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. ^[27]

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, "Whatever that penalty is should be levied against me: rudeness to Boies in the first degree. "^[28] Despite Gates' denials, the judge ruled that Microsoft had committed monopolization and tying, blocking competition, in violation of the Sherman Act. The Sherman Antitrust Act ( Sherman Act, July 2, 1890, ch 647,) was the first United States Federal statute to limit Cartels and ^[28]

As an executive, Gates met regularly with Microsoft's senior managers and program managers. Most firsthand accounts of these meetings portray him as hostile, berating managers for perceived holes in their business strategies or their proposals which place the company's long-term interests at risk. ^[29] He has been described shouting at length at employees before letting them continue, with such remarks as, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"^[30] and, "Why don't you just give up your options and join the Peace Corps?"^[31] However, he was also known to back down when the targets of his outbursts responded frankly and directly. The Peace Corps is an independent United States federal agency. ^[30] When subordinates appeared to be procrastinating, he was known to quip, "Do you want me to do it over the weekend?"^[32]

Gates' 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. A programming language is an Artificial language that can be used to write programs which control the behavior of a machine particularly a Computer. He has not officially been on a development team since working on the TRS-80 Model 100 line, but he wrote code as late as 1989 that shipped in the company's products. The TRS-80 Model 100 Portable computer was introduced in 1983 ^[32] 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. Events 763 BC - Assyrians record a Solar eclipse that will be used to fix the Chronology of Mesopotamian history Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. 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. Ray Ozzie (born November 20, 1955) is Chief Software Architect at Microsoft. Craig Mundie is chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft. ^[33] One of his last initiatives before announcing his departure was the creation of a robotics software group at Microsoft. See also Robot Robotics is the science and technology of Robots and their design manufacture and application ^[34]

Personal life

An actor dressed as the Master Chief stands beside Gates at the Halo 3 launch. Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, commonly called the Master Chief, is a Fictional character and the main Protagonist of the Halo Halo 3 is a First-person shooter Video game developed by Bungie exclusively for the Xbox 360.

Gates married Melinda French from Dallas, Texas on January 1, 1994. Melinda French Gates (born Melinda Ann French on August 15, 1964) is the co-founder and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. New Year See also New Year The Ancient Romans began their consular year on January 1st since 153 BC Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) They have three children: Jennifer Katharine Gates (1996), Rory John Gates (1999) and Phoebe Adele Gates (2002). Bill Gates' house is a 21st century earth-sheltered home in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. Earth sheltering is the architectural practice of using earth against building walls for external Thermal mass, to reduce heat loss and to easily maintain Lake Washington is the second largest natural Lake in state of Washington (after Lake Chelan) and the largest lake in King County. Medina is a city located in the Eastside, a region of King County Washington. Washington ( is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. 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. King County is located in the US state of Washington. The population in the 2000 census was 1737034 and in 2006 was an estimated 1835300 Also among Gates' private acquisitions is the Codex Leicester, a collection of writings by Leonardo da Vinci, which Gates bought for $30. The Codex Leicester is a collection of largely scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( April 15 1452 – May 2 1519 was an Italian Polymath, having been a scientist Mathematician, Engineer 8 million at an auction in 1994. ^[35] Gates is also known as an avid reader and the ceiling of his large, home library is engraved with a quote from The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is a Novel by the American author F Scott Fitzgerald. ^[36]

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. The Forbes 400 or 400 Richest People (first published in 1982) is a list published by Forbes Magazine of the Wealthiest 400 Americans In 1999, Gates's wealth briefly surpassed $101 billion, causing the media to call him a "centibillionaire". ^[37] 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 and the multi-billion dollar donations he has made to his charitable foundations. The " dot-com bubble " (or sometimes the " IT bubble " was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2001 (with a climax on March 10 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. ^[38]

Gates has several investments outside Microsoft, which in 2006 paid him a salary of $616,667, and $350,000 bonus totalling $966,667. ^[39] He founded Corbis, a digital imaging company, in 1989. Corbis Corporation is a buyer/seller of high-quality photography and film footage and related rights based in Seattle Washington. In 2004 he became a director of Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company headed by longtime friend Warren Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway ( for supervoting shares and for nonvoting shares is a conglomerate Holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska Warren Buffett (born August 30 1930 is an American Investor, Businessman, and Philanthropist. ^[40] He is a client of Cascade Investment Group, a wealth management firm with diverse holdings. Wealth Management is an advanced investment advisory discipline that incorporates Financial planning and specialist financial services ^[41]

Philanthropy

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. Andrew Carnegie (properly kɑrˈneɪgi but commonly /ˈkɑrnɨgi/ or /kɑrˈnɛgi/ (25 November 1835 – 11 August 1919 was a Scottish -born American Industrialist John Davison Rockefeller ( July 8, 1839 &ndash May 23, 1937) was an American Industrialist and philanthropist Gates Foundation. ^[42] 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. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (B&MGF is the largest transparently operated Private foundation in the world founded by Bill and Melinda A foundation is a legal categorization of Nonprofit organizations. ^[43] The foundation is setup to allow benefactors access how its money is being spent, unlike other major charitable organizations such as the Wellcome Trust. The definition of charitable organization, and of charity varies according to the country and in some instances the region of the country in which the charitable organization operates The Wellcome Trust was established in 1936 as an independent charity funding research to improve human and animal health ^[44][45] The generosity and extensive philanthropy of David Rockefeller has been credited as a major influence. David Rockefeller Sr (born June 12, 1915) is a prominent American Banker, Statesman, Globalist and the current patriarch 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. The Rockefeller family, the renowned Cleveland family of John D ^[46]

The foundation's grants have provided funds for college scholarships for under-represented minorities, AIDS prevention, diseases prevalent in third world countries, and other causes. A scholarship is an award of access to an institution or a financial aid award for an individual student scholar for the purpose of furthering their Education Third World is a name given to nations that are generally considered to be underdeveloped economically In 2000, the Gates Foundation endowed the University of Cambridge with $210 million for the Gates Cambridge Scholarships. The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University) located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the The Gates Cambridge Scholarships were established by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 with a $210 million endowment to enable outstanding graduate students from The Foundation has also pledged over $7 billion to its various causes, including $1 billion to the United Negro College Fund. The United Negro College Fund ( UNCF) is a Fairfax, Virginia -based American philanthropic organization that fundraises College tuition According to a 2004 Forbes magazine article, Gates gave away over $29 billion to charities from 2000 onwards. These donations are usually cited as sparking a substantial change in attitudes towards philanthropy among the very rich, with philanthropy becoming the norm. Philanthropy is the act of donating money goods services time and/or effort to support a socially beneficial cause with a defined objective and with no financial or material ^[47] Buffett, who was the world's second richest person,^[48] announced on June 25, 2006 that he has pledged to give the foundation 10 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares, spread over multiple years through annual contributions. Events 524 - Battle of Vézeronce, the Franks defeat the Burgundians Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Berkshire Hathaway ( for supervoting shares and for nonvoting shares is a conglomerate Holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska ^[49]

Gates announced on May 6, 2008 that he would move to a part-time role within Microsoft, leaving day-to-day operations management in July 2008 to begin a full-time career in philanthropy, but would remain as chairman and advisor. Events 1527 - Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Philanthropy is the act of donating money goods services time and/or effort to support a socially beneficial cause with a defined objective and with no financial or material ^[33] Gates credited Buffett with influencing his decision to commit himself to charitable causes. ^[50] Days later, Buffett announced that he would begin matching Gates' contributions to the Gates Foundation of up to $1. 5 billion per year in stock. ^[51] Buffett helped to guide the foundation to give its endowment away quickly. It became one of the few charitable organizations with a lifespan, promising to spend all of its resources and to close within 50 years of the deaths of its founders. ^[52]

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 (trademarked in capitals as TIME) is a weekly American Newsmagazine, similar to Newsweek and 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. Melinda French Gates (born Melinda Ann French on August 15, 1964) is the co-founder and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Person of the Year (formerly Man of the Year) is an annual issue of the United States Newsmagazine Time that features and profiles ^[53] In 2006, he was voted eighth in the list of "Heroes of our time". ^[54] 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. The Sunday Times is a Sunday Broadsheet Newspaper distributed in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Upside was a San Francisco -based business and technology magazine for Venture capitalists It was published from 1989 to 2002 The Guardian (until 1959 The Manchester Guardian) is a British Newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ^[55]

Gates has received honorary doctorates from Nyenrode Business Universiteit, Breukelen, The Netherlands in 2000,^[56] the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden in 2002, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan in 2005, Harvard University in June 2007,^[57] and from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, in January 2008. An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa ( Latin: 'for the sake of the honour' is an Academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding Nyenrode Business Universiteit, also spelled as Nijenrode, is a prestigious Dutch business school and only private University. Breukelen is a municipality and town in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands The Royal Institute of Technology or Kungliga Tekniska högskolan ( KTH) is a University in Stockholm, Sweden. ('stɔkhɔlm is Sweden 's Capital and its largest City. It is the site of the national Swedish government, the parliament, and the "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. often abbreviated to, is one of the top universities in Japan. officially, is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and located on the eastern side of the main island Honshū. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. Karolinska Institutet (often translated from Swedish into English as the Karolinska Institute, and in older texts often as the Royal Caroline ^[58] Gates was also made an honorary KBE (Knighthood) from Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 2005,^[59] in addition to having entomologists name the Bill Gates flower fly, Eristalis gatesi, in his honor. The British honours system is a means of rewarding individuals' personal bravery achievement or service to the United Kingdom. Knight is the English term for a social position originating in the Middle Ages. For the ship see RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Context States headed by Elizabeth II The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Entomology (from Greek grc ἔντομος entomos, "that which is cut in pieces or engraved/segmented" hence "insect" and grc -λογία Bill Gates' flower fly ( Eristalis gatesi) is a flower fly found only in Costa Rican high Montane Cloud forests and named after ^[60]

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". The Order of the Aztec Eagle (Orden del Águila Azteca is the highest decoration awarded to foreigners in Mexico. ^[61]

Author

Gates has authored two books:

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

Notes

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. John Wiley & Sons Inc, also referred to as Wiley, is a global Publishing company that markets its products to professionals and consumers students and instructors Penguin Books is a British Publisher founded in 1935 by Allen Lane. (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 

External links

• Biography of Bill Gates at Microsoft.com
• Forbes: World's Richest People
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation