Bill Gates

Bill Gates is an entrepreneur, technologist, business leader, and author. He co-founded Microsoft in 1975 and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 and is an active investor and philanthropist.

In 2010, he co-founded The Giving Pledge with Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffett in an effort to encourage the world’s wealthiest families and individuals to publicly commit more than half of their wealth to philanthropic causes and charitable organizations during their lifetime or in their will. In 2015, he founded Breakthrough Energy, which works to address climate change by supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs, big thinkers, and clean technologies. He has also invested in dozens of companies, including Canadian National Railway and AutoNation, and is one of the largest owners of farmland in the US. He is the fourth richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $136 billion as of March 2022.

In 1975, Bill Gates started "Micro-soft" with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Their vision was to put a “a computer on every desktop and in every home.” Soon after founding the company in Albuquerque, New Mexico, they renamed it Microsoft and moved it to Washington state. Gates was still a student at Harvard University at the time, but dropped out after the fall semester of 1976 to dedicate his time to the company.

Gates led the company to become the worldwide leader in business and personal software and served as CEO and chairman. In 2000, Gates announced he was stepping down as CEO, but remained on as chairman and chief software architect. In 2008, Gates left his daily job at Microsoft, and in 2014, he left as chairman but remained on the board. In March 2020, Gates resigned from the board but said "Microsoft will always be an important part of my life’s work and I will continue to be engaged with Satya and the technical leadership to help shape the vision and achieve the company’s ambitious goals."

Bill Gates founded Breakthrough Energy in 2015, along with a coalition of private investors concerned about the impacts of accelerating climate change. Breakthrough Energy is focused on innovations that will lead the world to net-zero emissions by 2050. Breakthrough Energy is a network of entities and initiatives that include investment funds, non-profit and philanthropic programs, and policy efforts.

Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates started their charitable foundation in 2000. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a non-profit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world and has granted more than $60 billion in aid. Gates serves as co-chair of the Board of Trustees.

Bill Gates co-founded The Giving Pledge in August 2010, with Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffett. The Giving Pledge is a movement of ultra-wealthy philanthropists who commit to give the majority of their wealth to charitable causes, either during their lifetimes or in their wills. At its outset, forty of America’s wealthiest people made a commitment to give the majority of their wealth. It began in the United States and has since grown worldwide.

Bill Gates has written the following books:

• How to Prevent the Next Pandemic (May 3, 2022)
• How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need (February 16, 2021)
• Business @ the Speed of Thought: Succeeding in the Digital Economy (March 1, 1999)
• The Road Ahead (November 24, 1995)

Bill Gates married Melinda French Gates on January 1, 1994. They have three children, Rory, Pheobe, and Jennifer. They divorced on August 2, 2021, after twenty-seven years of marriage.

Bill Gates was born William Henry Gates III on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington. His father, William Henry Gates, Sr., was a lawyer, and his mother, Mary Gates, was a teacher. Gates grew up in Seattle with his two sisters and friend Paul Allen and attended Lakeside School, where he used his first computer. In 1973, Gates started college at Harvard University. He dropped out to start Microsoft with his childhood friend, Paul Allen. In 2007, he was awarded an honorary degree from Harvard University.