Profile of Bill Gates
Bill Gates is chairman of Microsoft Corporation.
On June 27, 2008, he moved out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He continues to serve as Microsoft's chairman and as an advisor on key development projects.
He entered Harvard University in 1973 , where he developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer - the MITS Altair.
He left Harvard in his junior year 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. His foresight and his vision for personal computing have been central to the success of Microsoft and the software industry.
In 1999, he 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. "Business @ the Speed of Thought" 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 on Amazon.com. Gates' previous book, "The Road Ahead", published in 1995, was at the top of the "New York Times" bestseller list for seven weeks.
He has donated the proceeds of both books to non-profit organizations that support the use of technology in education and skills development.
In addition to his love of computers and software, he 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.
He is also a Philantropist. He and his wife, Melinda, started a foundation in 2000 to help reduce injustice in...