William Henry "Bill" Gates III, KBE[6] (born October 28, 1955)[7] is an American business magnate, philanthropist, author and chairman[8] of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people[9] and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third.[10] During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 8 percent of the common stock.[11] He has also authored or co-authored several books.
Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a number of industry insiders criticize his business tactics, which they consider anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts (see Criticism of Microsoft).[12][13] In the later stages of his career, 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, established in 2000.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
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