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Bill Gates: The Great Man

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Bill Gates: The Great Man
(born October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington) is an American entreprenuer and the co-founder, chairman, former chief software architect, and former chief executive officer of Microsoft, the world 's leading software company. Forbes magazine 's The World 's Billionaires list has ranked him as the richest person on earth for the last thirteen consecutive years, with a current net worth of approximately $53 billion. When family wealth is considered, his family ranks second behind the Walton family.[3][4]

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. He is widely respected for his foresight and ambition.[5][6] He is also frequently criticized as having built Microsoft through unfair or unlawful business practices. Since amassing his fortune, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, founded in 2000.
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* 1 Early life * 2 Microsoft o 2.1 BASIC o 2.2 IBM partnership o 2.3 Windows o 2.4 Bill Gates ' role * 3 Personal life o 3.1 Wealth and investments o 3.2 Philanthropy * 4 Publicity o 4.1 Awards and recognition o 4.2 Popular portrayals * 5 Works * 6 References and footnotes * 7 Further reading * 8 External links

Early life

William Henry Gates III was born in Seattle, Washington to William H. Gates, Jr. (now Sr.) and Mary Maxwell Gates. His family was wealthy; his father was a prominent lawyer, his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate Bank and the United Way, and her father, J. W. Maxwell, was a national bank president. Gates has one older sister, Kristi (Kristianne), and one younger sister, Libby. He was the fourth of his name in his family, but was known as William Gates III or "Trey" because his father


References: 2. ^ Net worth: from Forbes: The 400 Richest Americans, dated March 9, 2006. 3. ^ "The 100 Richest In The World", Times Online, Times Newspapers, April 22, 2006. 4. ^ "Sunday Times Rich List - Rules of engagement", Times Online, Times Newspapers, April 26, 2006. 5. ^ Staff writer. "Vietnam gives Gates star welcome", BBC News, 2006-04-22. Retrieved on 2006-11-19. 6. ^ Baldauf, Scott. "Gates, the biggest thing in India since the Beatles", Christian Science Monitor, 2002-11-14. Retrieved on 2006-11-19. 7. ^ a b c Manes, Stephen, and Paul Andrews (1993). Gates: How Microsoft 's Mogul Reinvented an Industry and Made Himself The Richest Man in America. Touchstone. ISBN 0-385-42075-7. 8. ^ Wallace, James, and Jim Erickson (1993). Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-56886-4. 9. ^ Staff writer (1994-12-08). "The Bill Gates Interview". Playboy. Retrieved on 2006-05-16. 10. ^ Gates, Bill. Interview with David Allison., Bellevue, WA. 1993. 11. ^ Chposky, James, and Ted Leonsis (1989). Blue Magic: The People, the Power and the Politics Behind the IBM Personal Computer. Grafton. ISBN 0-246-13445-3. 17. ^ Bill Gates, An Open Letter to Hobbyists, February 3, 1976 18 19. ^ John Steele Gordon Michael Maiello (2002-12-23). Pioneers Die Broke. Forbes. Retrieved on 2006-07-05. 21. ^ Booting Your PC: Getting Up Close & Personal With A Computer 's BIOS. Smart Computing (November 1999). Retrieved on 2006-09-02. 24. ^ Opinion, Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corporation. U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, 1994. 27. ^ Bill Gates tops Forbes rich list. BBC (2004-09-24). Retrieved on 2006-09-05. 34. ^ The Gates Operating System. Time (January 13, 1997). Retrieved on 2006-05-16. 35. ^ Herbold, Robert J. (2002-01-01). "Inside Microsoft: Balancing Creativity and Discipline". Harvard Business Review. Retrieved on 2006-05-16. 36. ^ Microsoft PressPass. "Microsoft Announces Plans for July 2008 Transition for Bill Gates", Microsoft PressPass, June 15, 2006.
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