| William Henry Gates III (born on October 28, 1955, Seattle more popular as Bill Gates) is an American businessman and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For the period from 1996 to 2007, Bill Gates was the richest person on the planet according to the magazine Forbes.
Along with Paul Allen, Bill Gates founded the Microsoft Corporation and left the post of President of the Microsoft Corporation in June 2008.
Biography:
Gates was born in Seattle (Washington State) to corporate lawyer William Henry Gates II and Mary Maxwell Gates, a member of the board of directors of the First Interstate Bank, Pacific Northwest Bell and national board “United Way”.
Gates studied at the most exclusive school in Seattle, where he could develop the programming skills on the school’s minicomputer. In school, Gates was poor in grammar, civil administration and other subjects, since he considered them trivial but always got very good marks in mathematics. By the end of elementary school, Gates's bad behavior began to upset his parents and teachers , so much so that Gates was made to consult a psychiatrist.
In 1973, he went to Harward University but 2 years later, he took a leave of absence and immediately engaged himself in software programming.
In 1975, along with Allen, Gates founded the company Micro-Soft, which was later on called the Microsoft Corporation.
Bill Gates married Melinda French on January 1, 1994. The couple has three children — Jennifer Catherine, Rori John and Fibi Adele.
In 1994, Gates acquired Codex Leicester, a collection of writings by Leonardo da Vinci. Since 2003, it has been exhibited in the Museum of Arts, Seattle.
In 1997, Gates became a victim of extortion from a citizen in Chicago, Adam Quinn Pletcher. Gates gave evidences in court. Pletcher was declared guilty and was sentenced in July, 1998 for six years in prison.
In his religious views, Gates, most likely, is agnostic. When the correspondent of the magazine The Times asked whether he believes in God, Gates answered: “I do not have any facts testifying it”.
On the 14th December, 2004, Bill Gates was included into the council Berkshire Hathaway, thus formalizing the relations with Warren Buffett. The Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate includes Geico (automobile insurance), Benjamin Moore (paints) and Fruit of the Loom (textiles). Gates also is part of the council Icos and biotechnological company Bothell.
On March 2, 2005, the office of foreign affairs of Great Britain declared that Gates will receive the title “Honorary Knight-Commander of the order of the British Empire” for his investment in enterprises in Great Britain and his efforts to eliminate poverty in the world.
According to the results of 2005, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates have been named “People of the year” by American magazine “Time”.
From June 7, 2007, Bill Gates was to be considered as a graduate of Harvard University. The decision to present the degree to Gates was taken by the University Administration.
On January 7, 2008, Bill Gates announced his intentions to put down his powers as the head of the Microsoft Corporation in July, 2008 to switch his attention towards charity work.
June 27, 2008 was the last working day for Bill Gates as head of the Microsoft Corporation. In spite of this, Bill Gates is not leaving the company forever — Gates still remains the chairman of the Board of Directors (but without executive powers) and will be engaged in special projects and also remains the largest shareholder (8.7% of Microsoft shares) of the Microsoft corporation. After retiring from the post, he is planning to devote himself to the management of “Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation”.
Books by Bill Gates:
In 1995, Bill Gates authored a book “The Road Ahead”, in which, he wrote his views about the direction and movement of society with the development of information technologies.
In 1999, Bill Gates wrote a book “Business @ the Speed of Thought”, which shows how information technologies can solve business problems in an absolutely new manner.
Films about Bill Gates:
Pirates of Silicon Valley |
Bill Gates has officially left Microsoft this Friday.
While Bill planned his departure for years, it happens at a difficult time for Microsoft - the company struggles to compete with Google for search engine domination. Microsoft attempts to make its own "live search" popular were not successful, and the company is back to negotiations with Yahoo about the possible take-over of Yahoo search engine.
