William H. Gates Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer Microsoft Corporation
William (Bill) H. Gates is
chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft
Corporation, the
leading provider, worldwide, of software for the personal
computer. and
employs more than 20,000 people in 48 countries. Born on October
28,
1955, Gates and his two sisters grew up in Seattle. 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 began his career in personal computer
software, 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 executive
vice president for sales and support. While at
Harvard, Gates developed the
programming language BASIC for the first
microcomputer -- the MITS Altair. In
his junior year, Gates dropped out of
Harvard to devote his energies to
Microsoft, a company he had begun in
1975 with Paul Allen. Guided by a belief
that the personal computer would be
a valuable tool on every office desktop and
in every home, they began
developing software for personal computers. Gates’
foresight and vision
regarding personal computing have been central to the
success of Microsoft
and the software industry. Gates is actively involved in
key management and
strategic decisions at Microsoft, and plays an important role
in the
technical development of new products. A significant portion of his time
is
devoted to meeting with customers and staying in contact with
Microsoft
employees around the world through e-mail. Under Gates’
leadership,
Microsoft’s mission is to continually advance and improve
software technology
and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more
enjoyable for people to use
computers. In 1995, Gates wrote The Road Ahead,
his vision of where information
technology will take society. Co-authored by
Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft’s
chief technology officer, and Peter Rinearson,
The Road Ahead held the No. 1
spot on the New York Times’ bestseller list for
seven weeks. Published in the
U.S. by Viking, the book was on the NYT
list for a total of 18 weeks. Published
in more than 20 countries, the book
sold more than 400,000 copies in China
alone. In 1996, while redeploying
Microsoft around the Internet, Gates
thoroughly revised The Road Ahead to
reflect his view that interactive networks
are a major milestone in human
history. The paperback second edition has also
become a bestseller. Gates is
donating his proceeds from the book to a
non-profit fund that supports
teachers worldwide who are incorporating computers
into their classrooms. In
addition to his passion for computers, Gates is
interested in biotechnology.
He sits on the board of the Icos Corporation and is
a shareholder in Darwin
Molecular, a subsidiary of British-based Chiroscience.
He also founded
Corbis Corporation, which is developing one of the largest
resources of
visual information in the world-a comprehensive digital archive of
art and
photography from public and private collections around the globe. Gates
also
has invested with cellular telephone pioneer Craig McCaw in Teledesic,
a
company that is working on an ambitious plan to launch hundreds of
low-orbit
satellites around the globe to provide worldwide two-way
broadband
telecommunications service. In the decade since Microsoft has gone
public, Gates
has donated more than $270 million to charities, including $200
million to the
William H. Gates Foundation. The focus of Gates' giving is
in three areas:
education, population issues and access to technology. Gates
was married on Jan.
1, 1994 to Melinda French Gates. They have one child,
Jennifer Katharine Gates,
born in
1996.