Name at birth: William Gates III

Bill Gates is the head of the software company Microsoft and is one of the world's wealthiest men. Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in the 1970s, though Allen left the company in 1983. Gates oversaw the invention and marketing of the MS-DOS operating system, the Windows operating interface, the Internet Explorer browser, and a multitude of other popular computer products. Along the way he gained a reputation for fierce competitiveness and aggressive business savvy. During the 1990s rising Microsoft stock prices made Gates the world's wealthiest man; his wealth has at times exceeded $75 billion, making Gates a popular symbol of the ascendant computer geek of the late 20th century. In June of 2006, Gates announced that he would step down from day-to-day involvement in Microsoft by July of 2008. He said he would then remain chairman of the Microsoft board while focusing on his charitable foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gates married Melinda French, a Microsoft employee, on 1 January 1994. The couple have three children: daughters Jennifer Katharine (b. 1996) and Phoebe Adele (b. 2002) and son Rory John (b. 1999)... Gates's personal charitable initiative, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has focused on global health issues, especially on preventing malaria and AIDS in poor countries... For their philanthropic activities, Time magazine named Bill and Melinda Gates (along with rock star and activist Bono) its Persons of the Year for 2005.