Larry Page

Internet entrepreneur, computer scientist. Born Lawrence Page on March 26, 1973 in East Lansing, Michigan. Page’s father Carl was a pioneer in computer science and artificial intelligence and his mother taught computer programming. After earning a bachelor of science degree in engineering from the University of Michigan, Page decided to concentrate on computer engineering at Stanford University, where he met Sergey Brin.

As a research project at Stanford University, Page and Brin created a search engine that listed results according to the popularity of the pages, after concluding that the most popular result would often be the most useful. They called the search engine Google after the mathematical term "Googol," which is a 1 followed by 100 zeros, to reflect their mission to organize the immense amount of information available on the Web.

After raising $1 million from family, friends and other investors, the pair launched the company in 1998. Google has since become the world’s most popular search engine, receiving more than 200 million queries each day. Headquartered in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, Google held its initial public offering in August 2004, making Page and Brin billionaires. Page continues to share responsibility for Google's day-to-day operations with Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt.

Sergey Brin

Is the cofounder of the Google search engine. He and fellow Stanford University student Larry Page worked together on a project while doing a Ph.D. in Computer Science. The Pair left their studies to focus on developing the Google search engine. Sergey Brin and his partner Larry Page went on to become two of the wealthiest young entrepreneurs in America with the success of their university project, Google.

Sergey Mihailovich Brin was born in Moscow, Russia in 1973. The Brin family moved from Russia to the United States of American in 1979 when Sergey was 5 years of age. His father gained work as a mathematics professor at the University of Maryland and his mother went on to work at NASA.

Brin grew up fascinated by computers and had one from a very early age, when home computers were not common in households (Commodore 64 days). He went on to receive a bachelor of science degree at the University of Maryland, with honors in mathematics and computer science in 1993. Brin then went on to start his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the Stanford University.

While studying for his Ph.D he met Lawrence Page and went on to work with on a project to organize the Internet and improve the way people search for information. They first nicknamed the project "BackRub" as it relied heavily on the number and relevancy of links pointing to a website (later called PageRank).

"Research on the Web seems to be fashionable these days and I guess I'm no exception. Recently I have been working on the Google search engine with Larry Page." Sergey Brin Quote

Brin and Page left their studies at Stanford University and started Google Inc. in 1998. The popularity of the search engine increased dramatically, forcing the company to constantly expand its computing power, improve its technology, and move to bigger premises (now situated at the "Googleplex" in Mountain View, California). The company became a publicly traded company in 2004 (traded on the NASDAQ as GOOG) with individual shares being valued at $85 each and quickly rose to $100+ in the first day of trading. Google has continued to grow through acquiring and creating new Internet services and products online. The stock price also grew rapidly to more than $420 per share at the end of November in 2005.

"Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. We believe that the most effective, and ultimately the most profitable, way to accomplish our mission is to put the needs of our users first. We have found that offering a high-quality user experience leads to increased traffic and strong word-of-mouth promotion." SEC Filing of Google

Sergey Brin and Larry Page shared 16th position on the Richest Americans list released by the Forbes business magazine in 2005, having an estimated $11 billion USD each.

Brin remains active in the company with the role of the president of Technology.

Michael Bloomberg

Mayor Bloomberg As a ChildMichael R. Bloomberg is the 108th Mayor of the City of New York. Born on February 14, 1942 in Boston and raised by middle-class parents in Medford, Massachusetts, he was taught at an early age the values of hard work and civic responsibility. He attended Johns Hopkins University, where he paid his tuition by taking loans and working as a parking lot attendant during the summer. After college, he went on to receive an MBA from Harvard Business School. In 1966, he was hired by Salomon Brothers to work on Wall Street.

Mayor Bloomberg On The PhoneHe quickly rose through the ranks at Salomon, where he eventually oversaw equity trading and sales and then information systems. These two jobs enabled him to gain a keen understanding of the importance of technological innovation to a successful business. In 1981, Salomon was acquired, and he was squeezed out by the merger. With a vision of an information company that would use emerging technology to bring transparency and efficiency to the buyers and sellers of financial securities, he began a small start-up company called Bloomberg LP in 1981. Today, Bloomberg LP has over 275,000 subscribers to its financial news and information service in 161 countries around the globe. Headquartered in New York City, the company has more than 10,000 employees worldwide.

As his company grew, Michael Bloomberg started directing more of his attention to philanthropy, donating his time and resources to many different causes. He has sat on the boards of numerous charitable, cultural, and educational institutions, including Johns Hopkins University, where, as chairman of the board, he helped build the Bloomberg School of Public Health into one of the world's leading institutions of public health research and training.

Mayor Bloomberg's 2002 Inauguration Swear-inAlready deeply involved in civic affairs, he officially entered public life in 2001, when he entered the race for Mayor of the City of New York. His election came just two months after the tragic attacks of 9/11, at a time when many believed that crime would return, businesses would flee, and New York might never recover. Instead, under Mayor Bloomberg’s forward-looking leadership, and with his determination to build on the spirit of unity that defined the city after the attacks, New York rebounded faster and stronger than anyone expected.

Mayor Bloomberg With KidsIn his first term, Mayor Bloomberg cut crime 20 percent; created jobs by supporting small businesses; unleashed a building boom of affordable housing; expanded parks and worked to revitalize the waterfront; implemented ambitious public health strategies, including the successful ban on smoking in restaurants and bars; expanded support for community arts organizations; and improved the efficiency of government. In addition, fulfilling a campaign promise, he won control of New York's schools from the broken Board of Education, and began turning around the nation’s largest school district by injecting standards into the classroom and holding schools accountable for success. As a result, graduation rates have increased by more than 20 percent, and reading and math scores have both risen to record levels.

Mayor Bloomberg During PLANYC 2030 SpeechIn 2005, Mayor Bloomberg was re-elected by a diverse coalition of support that stretched across the political spectrum. In the first half of his second term, while balancing the budget and driving unemployment to a record low, Mayor Bloomberg took on a number of new challenges. He launched an innovative program to combat poverty that encourages work and makes work pay. He began a far-reaching campaign to fight global warming and give New York City the cleanest air of any major U.S. city. And he co-founded a bipartisan coalition 15 mayors - which has grown to more than 350 mayors - to keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals and off city streets.

When the current financial crisis hit and the national economy entered a serious recession, the Mayor launched a Five Borough Economic Opportunity Plan to bring the City through the downturn as quickly as possible. The Plan is focused on creating jobs for New Yorkers today, implementing a vision for growing the City’s economy over the long-term, and building affordable, attractive neighborhoods across all five boroughs.

Mayor Bloomberg is the father of two daughters, Emma and Georgina.

Robert T Kiyosaki

born April 8, 1947 is a Hawaiian born author and motivational speaker. He studied at the New York U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, joined the Marine Corps and fought in the Vietnam war. Kiyosaki has risen to fame as a motivational author and speaker in the areas of personal finance, real estate, investing and business. His Rich Dad Poor Dad series of books have sold millions of copies worldwide and through his education programs he is reaching thousands of students with his financial messages.

Kiyosaki was born and raised in Hawaii of Japanese / American parents. After moving to New York and graduating from college, Kiyosaki enlisted in the Marine Corps. He become an officer and helicopter gun pilot, serving time in the Vietnam war. Upon his return Kiyosaki worked as a salesman for the Xerox printing and photocopying company.

His first success in the business world came with a company he started in 1977. Kiyosaki's company was importing nylon and Velcro wallets that went on to become associated with surfers, earning them the title of "surfer wallets" and making Kiyosaki good profits.

Eventually Kiyosaki went on to become an educator in the areas of business and finance. In the mid eighties he established an educational company where students worldwide could learn about his financial philosophies.

Kiyosaki developed a board game to educate people financially, while at the same time remaining entertaining. The Cashflow 101 board game went on to become very successful for Kiyosaki. Cashflow 101 is now also available online, where players are able to learn the basics of investing and personal finance.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Robert Kiyosaki's real success came with a series of books based on the rich dad and poor dad characters. Kiyosaki writes the books in an entertaining method where financial novices can remain entertained and at the same time learn his personal finance theories. The rich dad, poor dad characters are fictional people, loosely based on people in Kiyosaki's life. Basically, poor dad is the man that goes to work hard for his money in a government job, just getting by each week, paying the bills and feeding the family. Eventually going on to retire poor and unhappy. Rich dad is more of a risk taker and uses his money to invest in real estate and businesses, eventually leading to an abundance of financial wealth where he retires early with a large fortune.

The Rich Dad, Poor Dad series consists of more than 8 books based on themes of investing, real estate, personal finance and business motivation. Many of them have gone on to become best sellers in their genre with the most popular (Rich Dad, Poor Dad) selling more than 17 million copies.

Kiyosaki Critics
Robert Kiyosaki has created a loyal group of many followers world wide with his financial philosophies, but there are also critics of his teachings. Some critics have accused Kiyosaki of giving novice investors false hope and encouraging them to make financially risky investment decisions, especially in the areas of real estate.

Summary
Kiyosaki briefly retired at the age 47 in 1994. He remains involved with the Rich Dad educational company, aiming to spread his financial literacy message worldwide. Other founding members of the educational group include his Wife Kim Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechture, CPA (co-author of the popular Rich Dad, Poor Dad book).

Donald Trump

Donald Trump owns some of the most prestigious pieces of prime real estate in New York City. Trump has slapped his Trump brand name on some of the finest hotels, casinos and building complexes in the city.

Donald Trump was born in New York on the 14th of June 1946. His father Fred Trump was a successful property developer that helped form the young Donald's business sense. Donald acknowledged his father's influence by stating that “My father was my mentor, and I learned a tremendous amount about every aspect of the construction industry from him.”.

Trump began his career in his family's real estate business after studying at the Wharton Business School. He worked with his father for five years and was extremely successful in making profitable deals. His father commented on his son's business success by stating that "everything he seems to touch turns to gold".

After gaining the necessary business skills in real estate from his father, Donald Trump moved into the Manhattan real estate scene. He went on to acquire some of the most exclusive properties in the city. Trump Casino, Trump International Hotel, Trump Marina Hotel and Casino, Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort and Trump Tower are among his prestigious portfolio of real estate properties.

Trump brands his properties with the Trump name displayed prominently. They all have the Trump name in their titles and often have large "T" symbols placed all over the important areas of the building. Through his properties and business dealings he has developed a celebrity personality and often appears in gossip columns, television programs and magazines.

starred in his own reality TV program in 2004. The Apprentice program is a selection of candidates competing against each other in the area of business to ultimately become Donald Trump's apprentice. The program was watched by millions of viewers each week and was wildly successful. Each participant to be eliminated was given the now famous "you're fired" sentence. The series was a hit and has gone on to be one of the more popular reality programs each year.

"I mean, there's no arguing. There is no anything. There is no beating around the bush. "You're fired" is a very strong term." Donald Trump

Trump is a self confident and extravagant businessman that has made himself instantly recognizable wherever he goes. His interests include real estate, entertainment, gaming, and sports. Trump also owns part of the three largest beauty competitions in the world, consisting of Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA. He is also a successful author with several best selling business books published that include The Art of the Deal, The Art of Survival and How to get Rich. Among his many other pursuits, Donald Trump was briefly interested in running for President, is a member of several civic and charitable organizations and is a generous philanthropist.

In 2005 Donald Trump started the Trump University that teaches business students online. The courses available are focused on real estate investing, being a successful entrepreneur, business management, and career success.

Towards the end of 2006 Donald Trump was criticized by the co-host of "The View" Rosie O'Donnell. It created a lot of media attention, with Rosie and Trump verbally attacking each other very publicly. See more about the Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell issue.

For his services to the entertainment industry with the success of his reality program, The Apprentice, Donald Trump received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Trump attended the ceremony with his model wife Melania and his son Barron Trump in January 2007.

Oprah Winfrey

Date of birth: January 29, 1954
Born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, Oprah Winfrey was reared by her grandmother on a farm where she "began her broadcasting career" by learning to read aloud and perform recitations at the age of three. From age six to 13, she lived in Milwaukee with her mother. After suffering abuse and molestation, she ran away and was sent to a juvenile detention home at the age of 13, only to be denied admission because all the beds were filled. As a last resort, she was sent to Nashville to live under her father's strict discipline. Vernon Winfrey saw to it that his daughter met a midnight curfew, and he required her to read a book and write a book report each week. "As strict as he was," says Oprah, "he had some concerns about me making the best of my life, and would not accept anything less than what he thought was my best."

Oprah Winfrey's broadcasting career began at age 17, when she was hired by WVOL radio in Nashville, and two years later signed on with WTVF-TV in Nashville as a reporter/anchor. She attended Tennessee State University, where she majored in Speech Communications and Performing Arts.

In 1976, she moved to Baltimore to join WJZ-TV news as a co-anchor, and in 1978 discovered her talent for hosting talk shows when she became co-host of WJZ-TV's "People Are Talking," while continuing to serve as anchor and news reporter.

Oprah Winfrey Biography Photo
In January 1984, she came to Chicago to host WLS-TV's "AM Chicago," a faltering local talk show. In less than a year, she turned "AM Chicago" into the hottest show in town. The format was soon expanded to one hour, and in September 1985 it was renamed "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Seen nationally since September 8, 1986, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" became the number one talk show in national syndication in less than a year. In June 1987, in its first year of eligibility, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" received three Daytime Emmy Awards in the categories of Outstanding Host, Outstanding Talk/Service Program and Outstanding Direction. In June 1988, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" received its second consecutive Daytime Emmy Award as Outstanding Talk/Service Program, and she herself received the International Radio and Television Society's "Broadcaster of the Year" Award. She was the youngest person and only the fifth woman ever to receive the honor in IRTS's 25-year history.

Oprah Winfrey Biography Photo
Before America fell in love with Oprah Winfrey the talk show host, she captured the nation's attention with her poignant portrayal of Sofia in Steven Spielberg's 1985 adaptation of Alice Walker's novel, The Color Purple. Winfrey's performance earned her nominations for an Oscar and Golden Globe Award in the category of Best Supporting Actress. Critics again lauded her performance in Native Son, a movie adaptation of Richard Wright's classic 1940 novel.

Her love of acting and her desire to bring quality entertainment projects into production prompted her to form her own production company, HARPO Productions, Inc., in 1986. Today, HARPO is a formidable force in film and television production. Based in Chicago, HARPO Entertainment Group includes HARPO Productions, Inc., HARPO Films and HARPO Video, Inc. In October, 1988, HARPO Productions, Inc. acquired ownership and all production responsibilities for "The Oprah Winfrey Show" from Capitol Cities/ABC, making Oprah Winfrey the first woman in history to own and produce her own talk show. The following year, HARPO produced it first television miniseries, the The Women of Brewster Place, with Oprah Winfrey as star and Executive Producer. It has been followed by the TV movies There Are No Children Here (1993), and Before Women Had Wings(1997), which she both produced and appeared in. In 1998, she starred in the feature film Beloved, from the book by the Nobel Prize-winning American author Toni Morrison.

Oprah Winfrey Biography Photo
In 1991, motivated in part by her own memories of childhood abuse, she initiated a campaign to establish a national database of convicted child abusers, and testified before a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on behalf of a National Child Protection Act. President Clinton signed the "Oprah Bill" into law in 1993, establishing the national database she had sought, which is now available to law enforcement agencies and concerned parties across the country.

Oprah Winfrey was named one of the 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century by Time magazine, and in 1998 received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Her influence extended to the publishing industry when she began her on-air book club. Oprah Book Club selections became instant bestsellers, and in 1999 she received the National Book Foundation's 50th anniversary gold medal for her service to books and authors.

She is one of the partners in Oxygen Media, Inc., a cable channel and interactive network presenting programming designed primarily for women. In 2000, Oprah's Angel Network began presenting a $100,000 "Use Your Life Award" to people who are using their lives to improve the lives of others. When Forbes magazine published its list of America's billionaires for the year 2003, it disclosed that Oprah Winfrey was the first African-American woman to become a billionaire.

George Soros

Founder and Chairman
Open Society Institute

A global financier and philanthropist, George Soros is the founder and chairman of a network of foundations that promote, among other things, the creation of open, democratic societies based upon the rule of law, market economies, transparent and accountable governance, freedom of the press, and respect for human rights.

Soros was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1930. His father was taken prisoner during World War I and eventually fled from captivity in Russia to reunite with his family in Budapest. Soros was thirteen years old when Hitler's Wehrmacht seized Hungary and began deporting the country's Jews to extermination camps. In 1946, as the Soviet Union was taking control of the country, Soros attended a conference in the West and defected. He emigrated in 1947 to England, supported himself by working as a railroad porter and a restaurant waiter, graduated in 1952 from the London School of Economics, and obtained an entry-level position with an investment bank.
Philosophy

At the London School of Economics, Soros became acquainted with the work of the philosopher Karl Popper, whose ideas on open society had a profound influence on his intellectual development. Specifically, Soros's experience of Nazi and Communist rule attracted him to Popper’s critique of totalitarianism, The Open Society and Its Enemies, in which he maintained that societies can only flourish when they allow democratic governance, freedom of expression, a diverse range of opinion, and respect for individual rights.
Finance

In 1956, Soros immigrated to the United States. He worked as a trader and analyst until 1963. During this period, Soros adapted Popper's ideas to develop his own "theory of reflexivity," a set of ideas that seeks to explain the relationship between thought and reality, which he used to predict, among other things, the emergence of financial bubbles. Soros began to apply his theory to investing and concluded that he had more talent for trading than for philosophy. In 1967 he helped establish an offshore investment fund; and in 1973 he set up a private investment firm that eventually evolved into the Quantum Fund, one of the first hedge funds, through which he accumulated a vast fortune.
Philanthropy

As his financial success mounted, Soros applied his wealth to help foster the development of open societies. In 1979, Soros provided funds to help black students attend the University of Cape Town in apartheid South Africa. Soon he created a foundation in Hungary to support culture and education and the country’s transition to democracy. (One of his projects imported photocopy machines that allowed citizens and activists in Hungary to spread information and publish censored materials.) Soros also distributed funds to the underground Solidarity movement in Poland, Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet physicist-dissident Andrei Sakharov. In 1982, Soros named his philanthropic organization the Open Society Fund, in honor of Karl Popper, and began granting scholarships to students from Eastern Europe. Bolstered by the success of these projects, Soros created more programs to assist the free flow of information. He supported educational radio programs in Mongolia and later contributed $100 million to provide Internet access to every regional university in Russia.

The magnitude and geographical scope of his philanthropic commitments, coupled with the core principle of fostering open societies, has allowed Soros to transcend the limitations of many national governments and international institutions. During the 1980s, Soros financed a trip by young economists at a reform-minded think tank in China to a business university in Budapest; he also established a grantmaking foundation in China to foster civil society and transparency. In 1991, he helped found the Central European University, a graduate institution in Budapest that focuses on social and political development. Soros spent $50 million to help the citizens of Sarajevo endure the city’s siege during the Bosnian war, funding among other projects a water-filtration plant that allowed residents to avoid having to draw water from distribution points targeted by Serb snipers. Most recently, he has provided $50 million to support the Millennium Villages initiative, which seeks to lift some of the least developed villages in Africa out of poverty.

In 1993, Soros created the Open Society Institute, which supports the Soros foundations working to develop democratic institutions throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. His network of philanthropic organizations dedicated to building open societies has expanded to include more than 60 countries in the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Despite the breadth of his endeavors, Soros is personally involved in planning and implementing many of the foundation network’s projects. His visionary efforts have produced a remarkable record of successful philanthropy, including efforts to free developmentally challenged people from life-long confinement in state institutions, to provide palliative care to the dying, to win release for prisoners held without legal grounds in penitentiaries in Nigeria, to halt the spread of tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, to create debate societies, to promote freedom of the press, and to help resource-rich countries establish mechanisms to manage their revenues in a way that will promote economic growth and good governance rather than poverty and instability.

In 2003, Soros said that removing President George W. Bush from office was one of his main priorities. During the 2004 campaign, he donated significant funds to various groups dedicated to defeating the president.
Publications

In 2006, Mr. Soros published The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of The War on Terror (Public Affairs, 2006). His previous books include The Bubble of American Supremacy (2005); George Soros on Globalization (2002); Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism (2000); The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Open Society Endangered (1998); Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve (1995); Underwriting Democracy (1991); Opening the Soviet System (1990); and The Alchemy of Finance (1987). His essays on politics, society, and economics appear frequently in major periodicals around the world.

Soros has received honorary degrees from the New School for Social Research, Oxford University, the Budapest University of Economics, and Yale University. In 1995, the University of Bologna awarded Soros its highest honor, the Laurea Honoris Causa, in recognition of his efforts to promote open societies throughout the world.

George Soros's political activities are wholly separate from the Open Society Institute. Read an official OSI statement on this subject.

For more information about George Soros's activities that are separate from the Open Society Institute, visit www.georgesoros.com.
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William (Bill) H. Gates

Is chairman of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft had revenues of US$51.12 billion for the fiscal year ending June 2007, and employs more than 78,000 people in 105 countries and regions.

On June 15, 2006, Microsoft announced that effective July 2008 Gates will transition out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. After July 2008 Gates will continue to serve as Microsoft’s chairman and an advisor on key development projects. The two-year transition process is to ensure that there is a smooth and orderly transfer of Gates’ daily responsibilities. Effective June 2006, Ray Ozzie has assumed Gates’ previous title as chief software architect and is working side by side with Gates on all technical architecture and product oversight responsibilities at Microsoft. Craig Mundie has assumed the new title of chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft and is working closely with Gates to assume his responsibility for the company’s research and incubation efforts.

Born on Oct. 28, 1955, Gates grew up in Seattle with his two sisters. Their father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle attorney. Their late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent, and chairwoman of United Way International.

Gates attended public elementary school and the private Lakeside School. There, he discovered his interest in software and began programming computers at age 13.

In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University as a freshman, where he lived down the hall from Steve Ballmer, now Microsoft's chief executive officer. While at Harvard, Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer - the MITS Altair.

In his junior year, Gates left Harvard to devote his energies to Microsoft, a company he had begun in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Guided by a belief that the computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home, they began developing software for personal computers. Gates' foresight and his vision for personal computing have been central to the success of Microsoft and the software industry.

Under Gates' leadership, Microsoft's mission has been to continually advance and improve software technology, and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers. The company is committed to a long-term view, reflected in its investment of approximately $7.1 billion on research and development in the 2007 fiscal year.

In 1999, Gates wrote Business @ the Speed of Thought, a book that shows how computer technology can solve business problems in fundamentally new ways. The book was published in 25 languages and is available in more than 60 countries. Business @ the Speed of Thought has received wide critical acclaim, and was listed on the best-seller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and Amazon.com. Gates' previous book, The Road Ahead, published in 1995, held the No. 1 spot on the New York Times' bestseller list for seven weeks.
Top row: Steve Wood (left), Bob Wallace, Jim Lane. Middle row: Bob O'Rear, Bob Greenberg, Marc McDonald, Gordon Letwin. Bottom row: Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood, Paul Allen. December 7, 1978.
Top row: Steve Wood (left), Bob Wallace, Jim Lane. Middle row: Bob O'Rear, Bob Greenberg, Marc McDonald, Gordon Letwin. Bottom row: Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood, Paul Allen. December 7, 1978.

Gates has donated the proceeds of both books to non-profit organizations that support the use of technology in education and skills development.

In addition to his love of computers and software, Gates founded Corbis, which is developing one of the world's largest resources of visual information - a comprehensive digital archive of art and photography from public and private collections around the globe. He is also a member of the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which invests in companies engaged in diverse business activities.

Philanthropy is also important to Gates. He and his wife, Melinda, have endowed a foundation with more than $28.8 billion (as of January 2005) to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of global health and learning, with the hope that in the 21st century, advances in these critical areas will be available for all people. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed more than $3.6 billion to organizations working in global health; more than $2 billion to improve learning opportunities, including the Gates Library Initiative to bring computers, Internet Access and training to public libraries in low-income communities in the United States and Canada; more than $477 million to community projects in the Pacific Northwest; and more than $488 million to special projects and annual giving campaigns.

Gates was married on Jan. 1, 1994, to Melinda French Gates. They have three children. Gates is an avid reader, and enjoys playing golf and bridge.