Bill Gates

Bill Gates

William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and writer best known for co-founding the software giant Microsoft, along with his 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 its largest individual shareholder until May 2014.[2][a] He was a prominent pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s.

Gates was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. In 1975, he and Allen founded Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Gates led the company as its chairman and chief executive officer until stepping down as CEO in January 2000, succeeded by Steve Ballmer, but he remained chairman of the board of directors and became chief software architect.[5] During the late 1990s, he was criticized for his business tactics, which were considered anti-competitive. This opinion has been upheld by numerous court rulings.[6] In June 2008, Gates transitioned into 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 had established in 2000.[7] He stepped down as chairman of the Microsoft board in February 2014 and assumed the role of technology adviser to support newly appointed CEO Satya Nadella.[8] In March 2020, Gates left his board positions at Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway to focus on his philanthropic efforts on climate change, global health and development, and education.[9]

Since 1987, Gates has been included in the Forbes list of the world's billionaires. From 1995 to 2017, he held the Forbes title of the richest person in the world every year except in 2008 and from 2010 to 2013. In October 2017, he was surpassed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who had an estimated net worth of US$90.6 billion compared to Gates's net worth of US$89.9 billion at the time.[10] In the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans in 2023, he was ranked 6th with a wealth of $115.0 billion.[11] As of January 2024, Gates has an estimated net worth of US$140 billion, making him the fourth-richest person in the world according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.[12]

Later in his career and since leaving day-to-day operations at Microsoft in 2008, Gates has pursued other business and philanthropic endeavors. He is the founder and chairman of several companies, including BEN, Cascade Investment, TerraPower, bgC3, and Breakthrough Energy. He has donated sizable amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, reported to be the world's largest private charity. Through the foundation, he 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.[13]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The co-founder of Microsoft had a few minor run-ins with the law.

Bill Gates after he was arrested in 1977 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for running a stop sign and driving without a license. Gates himself addressed the arrest that led to that mugshot in an interview with Time Magazine in 2007:

There's a great photo of Bill Gates from 1977, the year he would have graduated from Harvard if he hadn't dropped out. He was 22 at the time and looks all of 16. He's got a flowered collar, tinted glasses and feathered blond hair, and he looks so happy, you'd swear he knew what the rest of his life was going to be like. He also has a sign around his neck: it's a mug shot. "I was out driving Paul [Allen]'s car," Gates says, flashing that same smile 30 years later. "They pulled me over, and I didn't have my license, and they put me in with all the drunks all night long. And that's why the rest of my life, I've always tried to have a fair amount of cash with me. I like the idea of being able to bail myself out."

While Time says he was 22, articles from 1998 put his age as 21 at the time of his arrest. According to a 1998 Associated Press story, the same mugshot was featured on the cover of Brill’s Content magazine as part of a story about Microsoft’s public relations machine. According to the AP article (which cites the Albuquerque police), the 1977 arrest was for running a stop sign and driving without a license. Gates had also been arrested in 1975 for speeding and driving without a license.

Gates himself reportedly first saw the photograph when representatives of the city of Albuquerque asked him if they could release it to Brill’s Content. He also showed it at a May 1998 speech, which many said was a preemptive attempt at damage control.

From Snopes.com