Bill Gates

Bill Gates or William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, software developer, investor, author, and philanthropist. Bill Gates is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), president and chief software architect, while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014. He was a major entrepreneur of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s.

Bill Gates was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. In 1975, Bill Gates and Allen founded Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Bill Gates became the world's largest personal computer software company. Bill Gates led the company as chairman and CEO until stepping down as CEO in January 2000, succeeded by Steve Ballmer, but Bill Gates remained chairman of the board of directors and became chief software architect. During the late 1990s, Bill Gates was criticized for his business tactics, which have been considered anti-competitive. This opinion has been upheld by numerous court rulings. In June 2008, Bill Gates transitioned to a part-time role at Microsoft and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the private charitable foundation he and his then-wife, Melinda Gates, established in 2000. Bill Gates stepped down as chairman of the board of Microsoft in February 2014 and assumed a new post as technology adviser to support the newly appointed CEO Satya Nadella. In March 2020, Bill Gates left his board positions at Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway to focus on his philanthropic efforts including climate change, global health and development, and education.

Since 1987, Gates has been included in the Forbes list of the world's wealthiest people. From 1995 to 2017, Bill Gates held the Forbes title of the richest person in the world every year except from 2010 to 2013. In October 2017, Bill Gates was surpassed by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who had an estimated net worth of US.6 billion compared to Gates's net worth of US.9 billion at the time. As of February 2022, Gates had an estimated net worth of US$130 billion, making him the fourth-richest person in the world.

Later in his career and since leaving day-to-day operations at Microsoft in 2008, Bill Gates has pursued many business and philanthropic endeavors. He is the founder and chairman of several companies, including BEN, Cascade Investment, bgC3, and TerraPower. Bill Gates has given sizable amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill Gates & Melinda Gates Foundation, reported to be the world's largest private charity. Through the foundation, Bill Gates led an early 21st century vaccination campaign that significantly contributed to the eradication of the wild poliovirus in Africa. In 2010, Gates and Warren Buffett founded The Giving Pledge, whereby they and other billionaires pledge to give at least half of their wealth to philanthropy.