Bill Gates – Business Leader
Born – USA October 28, 1955
Bill Gates is one of the most influential people in the world. He is co-founder of the most recognized brands in the computer industry with nearly every desktop computer using at least one software program from Microsoft. According to Forbes magazine Gates is the wealthiest man in the world and has been in the number 1 position for at least seven years.
Gates was born and grew up in Seattle, Washington USA. His father, William H. Gates II was a Seattle attorney and his mother, Mary Maxwell Gates was a school teacher. Gates and his two sisters had a comfortable upbringing, with Gates able to attend the exclusive secondary “Lakeside School”.
Bill Gates started studying at Harvard University in 1973 where he met up with Paul Allen. Gates and Allen worked on a version of the programming language BASIC, that was the basis for the MITS Altair (the first microcomputer available). He did not go on to graduate from Harvard University as he left in his junior year to start what was to become the largest computer software company in the world, Microsoft Corporation.
Bill Gates and the Microsoft Corporation
“To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.”
– Microsoft Mission Statement
Gates believed there should be a computer on every office desk and in every home. In 1975 the company Micro-soft was formed, an abbreviation of microcomputer software. It soon became simply “Microsoft”® .
The success of Microsoft began with the MS-DOS computer operating system that Gates licensed to IBM. Gates also set about protecting the royalties that he could acquire from computer software by aggressively fighting against all forms of software piracy, effectively creating the retail software market that now exists today. This move was quite controversial at the time as it was the freedom of sharing that produced much innovation and advances in the newly forming software industry. But it was this stand against software piracy, that was to be central in the great commercial success that Microsoft went on to achieve.
The Microsoft monopoly sets about completely dominating every market it enters through either acquisition, aggressive business tactics or a combination of them.
Bill Gates’ Wealth
With an estimated wealth of $46.6 billion in 2004, Bill Gates is the richest man in the world and he should be starting to get used to the number spot as he has been there from the mid-nineties up until now.
Bill Gates Philanthropy
Being the richest man in the world has also enabled Gates to create one of the world’s largest charitable foundations. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has an endowment of more than $28 billion, with donations totaling more than $1 billion every year.
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