Jump To Bill Gates' Stats
As a kid they use to call him Trey, but William Henry 'Bill' Gates III has been called much more than that as the mega mind behind the behemoth software company Microsoft. A good business idea may get you rich. A great business idea can make you wealthy. But, a phenomenal, timely, and novel idea made him a multi-billionaire.
Although Gates has not officially held the title of C.E.O and Chief Software Architect of the company since 2000, he keeps a pretty close eye on things out the Bellevue, Washington headquarters as the Microsoft Chairman. Nowadays, Gates and his wife Melinda have their hands full with the two girls and one boy and running one of the largest philanthropic foundations on the planet.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation give away hundreds upon hundreds of million dollar donations away a year. A report done in 2007, credited their generosity had reached over $28 billion. The foundation has teamed up with the likes of Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg to pledge that they will give a way 50% of their wealth over time.
While the ranks of billionaires has been growing in recent years, Gates is an old codger of those ranks according to Forbes magazine. He's been on that list since 1987. The 25-year alum has held the top spot for many years, lost it and regained, but nowadays Mexico's Carlos Slim holds the World's Richest Person title.
Gates start came from his avocation to computer code. While he was a high school student, he tinkered with computer dinosaurs until he completely understood how they ran and how they talked to you. His first real program was designing a game where the computer and you could have a death match of tic-tac-toe. So far, he seems to be winning.
