Achievements
William (Bill) H. Gates is the co-founder, chairman, former chief software architect, and former CEO of Microsoft, the world's largest software company. Microsoft had revenues of $44.28 billion for the fiscal year ending June 2006, and employs more than 71,000 people in 103 countries. Forbes magazine's list of The World's Billionaires has ranked him as the richest person in the world for the last thirteen consecutive years, and recent estimates put his net worth near $56 billion. Time Magazine named Gates one of the 100 people who had most influence in the 20th century, as well as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005 and again in 2006.
Career Highlights
Born in 1955, Bill Gates discovered his interest in software in his public elementary school and the private Lakeside School. He began programming computers at age 13. In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University as a freshman. At the university he lived down the hall from Steve Ballmer, future Microsoft's chief executive officer.
He started Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Guided by belief that computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home, they began developing software for personal computers. On June 15, 2006, Microsoft announced that from July 2008 Gates will move away of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his global health and education work. 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. Gates will continue to serve as Microsoft’s chairman and an advisor on key development projects.
Bill 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. In 2004 he became a director of Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company headed by longtime friend Warren Buffet. In 2000 he and his wife, Melinda, have endowed a foundation with more than $28.8 billion (as of January 2005) to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of global health and learning, with the hope that in the 21st century, advances in these critical areas will be available for all people.
Leadership Experience
Bill Gates' role at Microsoft for most of its history has been primarily the management and executive ones. Under his 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, who use computers.
Since Microsoft's founding in 1975 and until 2006, Gates has had primary responsibility for Microsoft's product strategy. He has aggressively broadened the company's range of products, and wherever Microsoft has achieved a dominant position he has vigorously defended it.
Gates meets regularly with Microsoft's senior managers and program managers. By all accounts he can be extremely confrontational during these meetings, particularly when he believes that managers have not thought out their business strategy or have placed the company's future at risk. 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!" and "Why don't you just give up your options and join the Peace Corps?" However, he often backs down when the targets of his outbursts respond frankly and directly. When he is not impressed with the technical hurdles managers claim to be facing, he sometimes quips, "Do you want me to do it over the weekend?"
Background Links
Bill Gates Speaks, Janet Lowe
Business @ the Speed of Thought, Bill Gates
How I Work: Bill Gates, Fortune
