Bill Gates
Richest Man Alive
Founder of Microsoft
Philanthropist
October 28, 1955
Till present
By: Joel Bowman
COMP 1631, Winter 2011
Programming
Start
First program was one
that allowed the user to
play tic tac toe against
the computer
Bill used the language
BASIC (Beginner's AllPurpose Symbolic
Instruction Code) in this
programing endeavour
Bill made a program for
his high school that did
class schedules. He also
ensured that he was in
female dominated
classes.
The MITS Altair- Bill invented a
variation of BASIC for this
machine
Harvard
Bill scored a 1590 out of 2000 on his SAT exams in 1973.
He entered Harvard in the fall of 1973, where he continued
to work on the school computers.
In his time at Harvard he developed an algorithm to solve the
pancake sorting problem.
Bill left Harvard after his first year to start Micro-Soft with his
friend, Paul Allen.
Microsoft
Founded April 4 1975 by
Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
They developed a
language for the Altair
8800, called Altair BASIC.
This code was distributed
with the Altair 8800
system, making it
Microsoft's first distributed
code.
The magazine that caught the
attention of Mr. Gates and Mr.
Allen. Led to the writing of there
Altair BASIC code.
Growth of
Microsoft
Microsoft became independent of
MITS in 1976. The company
moved from Albuquerque to
Washington state in 1979
In a joint venture with IBM
Microsoft bought an operating
system called PC-DOS. Microsoft
created there own OS called MSDOS after the PC-DOS system
was cloned by other programmers
The IBM-PC that had
Microsoft's PC-DOS installed as
an OS
Percentage of Microsoft owned by Bill Gates
Bills position
within Microsoft
From the 1981 restructuring to
2008, Bill actively managed
Microsoft and acted as the
CEO.
He wrote code as late as 1989,
however has not worked on a
development team since 1983.
In 2006, he announced his
transition away form Microsoft
to focus on the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation.
He has sat as the chairman of
the board of directors from
1981 till present
Bill gates
Total shares
The richest man
Bill was number 1 on the Forbes
List of the Worlds Richest
People from 1995-2001 and
again in 2009.
In 1999 Bill Gates Net wealth
surpassed 100 billion dollars thus
becoming the worlds first and
only (to date) centiBillionaire
Part of Bills
housing
complex worth
approximately
250 million.
His wealth has been on the
decline since 2000 due to his
various donations to charity.
Currently, Bill is the second
richest person in the world
behind Carlos Sims.
Bills current
investments net
close to 1 million
dollars per year.
Current Income
He also receives a
salary from
Microsoft for acting
as their
chairperson on the
board of directors.
Bill has been
quoted as saying,
I wish I wasnt [the
worlds richest
man].
He has also pledged to give away 95% of his
income before death, which would leave him
with a modest worth of approximately 13.5
million.
Graph of Microsoft's
stock over the past
5 years.
Bill and Melinda
Gates
Foundation
Formed in 1994 as the William H. Gates
Foundation, it became the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation in 1999.
Current endowment is approximately 33.5
Billion dollars.
Warren Buffet (top three richest people
perennially) is one of the key
contributors, donating shares of his
holding company, Berkshire Hathaway.
Personal Philanthropy
Bill and Melinda have
donated over 28 billion
dollars to charity as of
2007.
Ranked on the list of
top philanthropists in the
U.S.A. as of 2009.
2005 person of
the year
Due to their
philanthropic work, Bill
and Melinda Gates
were named Persons
of the Year along with
the lead singer of U2,
Bono.
Investments
Bill has invested in company's other then
Microsoft:
Cascade Investment group is controlled
by Bill and has investments in company's
such as CN Rail and Coca Cola.
bgC3, which is a think-tank organization
aimed at developing software to end
poverty.
Corbis is a company that distributes rights
to still images. It is privately owned by Mr.
Gates.
TerraPower is a company designing
nuclear reactors that do not require
refuelling for 100 years.
Awards
1994- CEO of the year in Chief
Executive Officers magazine
2005- Knight Commander of the
Order of the British Empire
proclaimed by queen Elisabeth II
2006- Order of the Aztec Eagle
(Mexicos highest declaration for a
forger)
2010- Bower Award for Business
Leadership from the Franklin Institute
2010- Silver Buffalo Award (Boy
Scouts of America's highest award)
Honorary Degrees
Despite never graduating from Harvard, Bill has received the
following honorary doctorial degrees:
Nyenrode Business University 2000
Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden) 2002
Waseda University 2005
Tsinghua University 2007
Harvard 2007
Karolinska Institutet 2007
University of Cambridge
2009
Author
Bill has written two
books:
The Road Ahead
(1995)
Business @ the
Speed of Thought
(1999)
The profits of both
books were
donated to charity.
References:
"Bill Gates Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation." The Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation. Web. 31 Jan. 2011.
<[Link]
"Bill Gates Biography." Woopidoo Business Success - Motivational
Business Quotes. Web. 31 Jan. 2011.
<[Link]
"Bill Gates: Chairman." Microsoft. 26 Jan. 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2011.
<[Link]
"Bill Gates." The History of Computing Project. March Mar. 2010.
Web. 31 Jan. 2011.
<[Link]
