INTRODUCTION

     We are living in the information age. Everything nowadays revolves around

computers and electronics. A person in California can play another competitor in Iran a game of chess without leaving their home by the use of computers. Computers have become a lot smaller and much more famous around the world. One individual has played a big role in the computer industry. He is an American business executive, chairman and chief executive officer of the Microsoft Corporation, and a multibillionaire: Bill Gates.







CAREER

Gates, William Henry, III (1955- ) was born in Seattle, Washington. Gates grew up in a very competitive family. His father, William H. Gates II, was an attorney. His mother, Mary, was a University of Washington regent and director of First Interstate Bank. His parents placed him in Lakeside, an academic and rigorous private school in Seattle. He met Paul Allen in high school. Gates was fascinated with computers since the age of 12 and has been programming projects throughout high school career.





While attending Harvard in 1975, Gates and Allen made a version of the BASIC, a computer programming language compiler for the MITS Altair microprocessor, the first personal computer. Working on BASIC for the Altair, Gates dropped out of Harvard, in 1977, to pursue his full-time vision of, "a computer on every desk and in every home." In the early 1980's, Gates help lead Microsoft from a developer of programming languages to a diverse computer software company that produced computer operating systems, applications software and programming tools.







Gates has made MS-DOS, in 1981, a computer operating system for the new IBM Personal Computer. He has also driven Microsoft toward the introduction of application software such as the Microsoft Word (word processing software). Gates has challenged many companies with there related products. He has challenged Digital Research, the maker of CP/M, with DOS, Lotus and 1-2-3 with Mutiplan and Excel, Novell’s Netware with various types of UNIX, IBM’s OS/2 with Windows NT, Money with Quicken and has defied Apple with the distinctiveness by building Windows.







VALUES

     Gates’ values are mostly teamwork and communication. He has been with Paul Allen and has worked with him ever since he went to high school. He needed to use a great deal of team work in 1980, when Microsoft was only a 32-person company. Gates also needed to use a lot of communications. To be an American business executive, chairman and chief executive officer of the Microsoft Corporation he did not achieve all of this by keeping to himself. He had to share his idea of the Personal Computer and make his dream come true.





PERSONAL INFLUENCE

     The contributions that Gates has made that were important to me is

nearly everything that has to do with computers. For example, I typed this report in Microsoft’s Windows ’98 using Microsoft Word. He has contributed to everyone who owns a computer, except those who own Apple Computers. MS-DOS runs on 90% of the world’s IBM computers. Gates has let me communicate across the world with my computer, via Internet, word process and many other functions on a computer. I believe he has made a great impact in all of us and in computer technology.