William
(Bill) H. Gates is chairman and chief software architect
of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software,
services and Internet technologies for personal and business
computing. Microsoft had revenues of $25.3 billion for the
fiscal year ending June 2001, and employs
more than 40,000 people in 60 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 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 more than
$4 billion on research and development in the current 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.
The book 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 has donated
the proceeds of the book 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 is
interested in biotechnology. He sits on the board of ICOS,
a company that specializes in protein-based and small-molecule
therapeutics, and he is an investor in a number of other
biotechnology companies. Gates also 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.
Philanthropy is also important to Gates. He and his wife,
Melinda, have endowed a foundation with more than $21 billion
to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of global
health and learning, with the hope that as we move into
the 21st century, advances in these critical areas will
be available for all people. To date, the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation has committed
more than $2 billion to organizations working in global
health; more than $500 million 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 $200
million to community projects in the Pacific Northwest;
and more than $29 million to special projects and annual
giving campaigns.
Gates was married on Jan. 1, 1994, to Melinda French Gates.
The couple has two children: a daughter, Jennifer Katharine
Gates, born in 1996; and a son, Rory John Gates, born in
1999. Gates is an avid reader, and enjoys playing golf and
bridge.
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