William Gates was born in Seattle on October 28, 1955 in the family of a lawyer and a schoolteacher. In addition to him, the family had two more daughters. The favorite subject of William in school was mathematics, but he did not like the humanities, he considered unnecessary and, accordingly, had low marks in these subjects. Programming Gates started at the age of 13, studying at the private school Lakeside School.
1973 was marked by the receipt of Bill Gates at Harvard University. Here he meets with Steve Ballmer, now - vice president of Microsoft Corporation for sales and support.
While studying at Harvard, Gates is developing BASIC, the programming language for the first Altair 8800 minicomputer. In 1975, along with Paul Allen, , Bill Gates organizes Microsoft , a business that so absorbs him that he regrets his studies at Harvard University without regret. Friends were convinced that behind personal computers a great future - and today we can say with confidence that their belief was really prophetic.
Genius Bill
To his teachers at Harvard Gates said: "I will become a millionaire earlier than I will be 30 years old."Everything turned out much better than he had expected - at the age of 31 he became a billionaire.
The genius of Bill Gates was manifested not only in his participation in the development of new products for the PC, but also in his gift as a manager and strategist. He often meets with clients and keeps in touch with his employees around the world. Microsoft is rapidly gaining momentum, improving its information products designed to make it as easy as possible for the user to work on the computer.
March 2005 was marked by the fact that Bill Gates was awarded the Order of the Knight Commander of the Supreme Order of the British Empire for a significant contribution to the UK enterprises and work to reduce poverty around the world.
Bill Gates was considered the richest man on the planet from 1996 to 2007 and in 2009.In September 2009, his fortune reached $ 50 billion, however, the onset of the global crisis somewhat reduced this figure next year.
In June 2008, Gates resigned as CEO of Microsoft, while remaining a non-executive chairman of the board of directors. At the moment he pays more attention to his fund - the latest sensation concerns his proposal to all billionaires to transfer 50% of their fortunes to charity. At the same time, Gates is ready to set an example first.
Bill Gates is a man of versatile interests. He is the founder of Corbis Corporation, which develops the world's largest source of visual information - a digital archive of photographs and works of art, stored in different collections and in different countries. Also Bill Gates is a board member of Icos Corporation, the owner of Darwin Molecular shares, invested in Teledesic, which is developing a satellite launch project to provide two-way broadband telecommunications. His versatile activities are not a hindrance to the hobby: the founder of Microsoft likes to play bridge and golf, reads a lot, collects cars and jumps on a trampoline to concentrate thoughts.
Personal life
The personal life of Bill Gates is also good. On January 1, 1994, he married Melinda French Gates, a Microsoft employee. For the wedding Gates rented one of the islands of Haiti. The Gates couple has three children: Jennifer Katharin, Rory John and Phoebe Adel. The family lives in a large spacious house( totaling 40,000 square feet) on the shores of Lake Washington. The house is full of modern electronic systems, being an example of a "smart home" of the 21st century.
Books by Bill Gates
Bill Gates is the author of several books.
The first book "The Road to the Future" co-authored with Microsoft Vice President Nathan Mirwold and journalist Peter Reinarson came out in 1995.In it, the founder of Microsoft shares his thoughts about how society is changing under the influence of developing information technologies. The book immediately became a bestseller, was published in 20 countries in millions of copies.
In 1996, the book "The Road to the Future" was changed and was published in the second edition. This was mainly due to a change in Gates's orientation toward Internet technology. Accordingly, the second edition of the book was supplemented with material on the World Wide Web and its role in the history of the development of civilization.
The second book by Bill Gates - "Business with the speed of thought" - was co-written with Collins Hemingway in 1999.In it, the idea of how information technology can help in solving business problems was found. Like the previous one, this book also became a bestseller, was released in 60 countries of the world in 25 languages.
All proceeds from the sale of books, Bill Gates lists in his charity fund.
The Bill Gates Foundation
The Gates couple are the founders of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation , founded in 1994, to support philanthropic initiatives in education and health. It is thanks to this fund that the low-income population of the US and Canada has the opportunity to work with a PC and go online in public libraries. The resources of the Bill Gates Foundation are also directed to the development of various public projects in other countries, in particular, activities to overcome poverty, as well as the prevention and treatment of viral diseases in developing countries in Africa and Asia.
It can be no exaggeration to say that the biography of Bill Gates is a hymn to human reason and genius, inspiring many enthusiastic programmers of young people around the world.
Who does not know this name? Bill Gates is the head of Microsoft, the leader in the production of computer software. The corporation's revenues have long exceeded tens of billions of dollars a year, and its branches are located in all countries of the civilized world. Undoubtedly, the biography of Bill Gates deserves close attention.
Childhood and adolescence