- American entrepreneur, public figure, philanthropist, one of the founders of Microsoft
- Date of birth: 10/28/1955
- Gates Official Site
- Gates Charitable Foundation Official Site
- Microsoft Corporation Official Site
William Henry “Bill” Gates III is an American entrepreneur and public figure, philanthropist, one of the founders (with Paul Allen ), and the former largest shareholder of Microsoft. He is also co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a member of the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway, and the CEO of Cascade Investment.
Place of birth, education. Born in Seattle, Washington, the son of William Henry Gates II, corporate attorney and Mary Maxwell Gates, Board Member of First Interstate Bank, Pacific Northwest Bell and USWest National Council, United Way.
Bill Gates attended the public elementary school, and then – at the private school Lakeside School. In 1973, he entered Harvard University to study law, but was expelled in 1975 for academic failure and absenteeism.
Career. In 1970, the first Traf-O-Data company was created in which Bill Gates and his classmates Paul Allen and Paul Gilbert worked. The company was developing a program to optimize traffic, the first successful program sold by Bill Gates to the government for $ 20,000. dollars.
In 1971, Information Sciences asked Bill and Paul to write a payroll program.
In 1972, Gates wrote the Bonneville Dam power distribution and safety software package. The payment was $ 30 thousand.
In late 1973, Paul Allen, a friend of Bill, got a job at Honeywell’s Boston office, and Gates began helping him with programming.
In 1974 the MITS company created a new personal computer – Altair 8800 and Bill offered for this computer a completely new programming language, which later conquered the whole world – BASIC. The trial run of the new language went well and Gates got a job there.
In 1975, Gates co-founded Microsoft, later called Microsoft Corporation, with Allen.
In 1979, IBM asked Bill to create an operating system for the world’s first personal computer, but Gates refused because he did not have the development needed to do the job. In the same year, he acquired an operating system called 86-DOS and invites Tim Patterson, its author, to work for him. After significant revision, the operating system purchased for $ 50 thousand became known as MS-DOS and was proposed by Gates for the IBM PC.
In September 1980, IBM approved the project and signed a detailed contract with Bill Gates.
In 1981, Paul Allen and Bill Gates transformed Microsoft into a computer software corporation. IBM in the same year released the first personal computer with MS-DOS 1.0, a 16-bit operating system. The software of this computer included Microsoft products – COBOL, BASIC, Pascal.
In 1982, Bill Gates convinced IBM managers to begin the expansion of MS-DOS by licensing this operating system to other PC makers.
In 1983, Microsoft created a computer mouse – mouse manipulator, which makes it much easier to enter data into a PC equipped with a graphical interface. The corporation also introduces a new text editor specifically for MS-DOS. Also in 1983, Bill Gates’ company introduced Windows.
In 1993, twenty-five million people worldwide use Windows as registered users.
In 1998, Microsoft was charged with the dishonest treatment of consumers and competitors. Bill Gates is called in for questioning, which lasts a total of twelve hours.
There was a lot of factual material against Gates, including threatening emails. As a result of the lawsuit, the corporation was required to pay significant fines, penalties, and also change its approach to business without fail.
On December 14, 2004, Bill Gates joined the board of Berkshire Hathaway, a conglomerate that includes Geico (auto insurance), Benjamin Moore (paints) and Fruit of the Loom (textiles). Gates also serves on the board of Icos, the biotech company Bothell.
On January 7, 2008, Bill Gates announced his intention to step down as CEO of Microsoft in July 2008, switching his activities to the management of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a charitable foundation he and his wife created to support projects in the health and education sectors.
On June 27, 2008, Bill Gates transferred his powers to Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, but remained the chairman of the Board of Directors and the largest shareholder of Microsoft – 8.7%. Gates’ departure did not actually affect the productivity of the corporation.
Bill Gates himself founded Bill Gates Company Three (“bgC3”). Its activity is positioned as research, non-profit, and according to regulatory documents the company “bgC3” is engaged in work in the field of analytical research, the provision of technological services, and the development of software and hardware.
In October 2013, according to Reuters, three large shareholders of Microsoft (with a share of about 5%) demanded the resignation of Bill Gates from the post of head of the corporation’s board of directors. At that time, the share of Gates shares was 4.5 percent. In February 2014, Gates stepped down as head of the board of directors.
On December 2, 2015, together with Zuckerberg, he founded the Breakthrough Energy Coalition fund, designed to attract private investment in the search and development of clean and alternative energy sources. Created the Mission Innovation initiative, uniting 20 countries, including the UK, USA, Brazil, India, China and others. The goal of the initiative is to double the level of public investment in the development of clean energy sources over the next five years from $ 10 billion to $ 20 billion per year.
On March 14, 2020, Bill Gates announced that he was leaving the board of directors of Microsoft, leaving only the post of advisor to the chairman of the board.
Capital. In the period from 1996 to 2007, he was the richest man on the planet according to Forbes magazine. In March 2012, Bill was ranked second in Forbes magazine with a fortune of $ 61 billion. On May 17, 2013, according to Bloomberg ratings, he regained the title of the richest person on Earth. On September 30, 2014, he became the 21st richest earthling. The sum of the fortune was $ 81 billion.
On the Forbes Billionaire List in 2018, moved down to a second-place by Amazon owner Jeff Bezos. Bill Gates ‘capital was $ 90 billion, while Bezos’s assets were estimated at $ 112 billion. In April 2019, it became known that Bill Gates’ fortune exceeded $ 100 billion.
Regalia. On March 2, 2005, the British Foreign Office announced that Gates would receive the title of Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his contributions to UK businesses and his efforts to reduce global poverty.
At the end of 2005, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates were named People of the Year by the American Time magazine.
On June 7, 2007, Bill Gates began to be considered a graduate of Harvard University. The decision to present Gates with a diploma was made by the university administration.
In 2017, President François Hollande awarded Gates and his wife Melinda France’s highest national honor, the Legion of Honor for Charity.
Books . In 1995, Bill Gates wrote TheRoadAhead, in which he outlined his views on the direction in which society is moving in connection with the development of information technology. In 1996, when Microsoft reoriented itself to Internet technologies, Gates made significant adjustments to the book.
In 1999, Bill Gates wrote Business @ theSpeedofThought, which shows how information technology can solve business problems in a completely new way.
A family. In 1994, Bill Gates married Melinda French, and two years later their daughter Jennifer appeared in their family. Three years later, a son, Rory, was born, and in 2002, a daughter, Phoebe, was born. Melinda worked for Gates’ company long before she married him. After the wedding, she left the service and devoted herself to household chores.
