Bill Gates

Bill Gates is the co-founder of Microsoft and one of the most influential technologists and philanthropists in modern history. Along with Paul Allen, Gates founded Microsoft in 1975 and led the company's transformation of personal computing from a hobbyist pursuit into a universal tool that empowered billions of people worldwide. His vision that there should be "a computer on every desk and in every home" seemed impossibly ambitious at the time but proved to be one of the most prescient predictions in technology history.

Under Gates' leadership, Microsoft developed MS-DOS, Windows, and Office — products that became the standard for personal and business computing for decades. Windows became the operating system for over 90% of the world's personal computers, and Microsoft Office became the essential productivity suite for businesses and individuals globally. Gates' strategic brilliance, technical depth, and competitive drive built Microsoft into the most valuable company in the world during the late 1990s.

Since transitioning away from day-to-day Microsoft operations, Gates has become the world's most impactful philanthropist through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation has invested tens of billions of dollars in global health, education, and poverty alleviation, playing a critical role in dramatically reducing child mortality, nearly eradicating polio, and improving agricultural productivity in developing countries. His second career in philanthropy may ultimately have an even greater impact on humanity than his first career in technology.

William Henry Gates III was born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington, to a prominent family — his father was a successful attorney and his mother served on corporate boards including First Interstate BancSystem and United Way. Gates attended Lakeside School, an elite private preparatory school, where he first encountered computers in 1968 at age 13. The school had purchased a Teletype Model 33 terminal and a block of time on a GE mainframe. Gates became obsessed, spending every available moment programming. He and his friend Paul Allen were so enthusiastic about the terminal that the school's computer budget was exhausted within weeks. At age 17, Gates and Allen formed their first business, Traf-O-Data, which analyzed traffic counting data for local governments. Gates enrolled at Harvard in 1973 but left after two years to co-found Microsoft with Allen in 1975, a decision that would reshape the computing industry and create the largest personal fortune in human history.