By David Richards and Reuters | Thursday | 2008-06-26
At a recent CES event Bill Gates walked on stage and apologised. He said "30 years ago today my father was operating a Kodak projector and I was making my first presentation in Las Vegas unfortunately one of the slides we presented then, was upside down. I would like to correct that mistake today" he said. He then took a slide out of his pocket and placed it into a projector "The right way up". It said ' The name of the new Company will be called Microsoft'.
Since then the now 52 year old Gates has gone on to create a monster software Company. Today is his last day. Back in 1975 Gates had a vision so he dropped out of Harvard University to start Microsoft and pursue a vision of a computer on every desk and in every home.
Three decades later, Gates is saying goodbye to the computer industry however he is leaving behind what is now the world's largest software company to work full-time at the charitable organisation -- the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- built by his vast fortune.
No longer the world's richest man -- he has been topped by investor Warren Buffett and Mexico's telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim -- Gates says great wealth brings with it great responsibility.
The 52-year-old, whose boyish looks seem at odds with his greying hair, will leave behind a life's work developing software to devote energy to finding new vaccines or to micro-finance projects in the developing world. As Microsoft's biggest shareholder, Gates will remain chairman and work on special technology projects. His 8.7 percent stake in Microsoft is worth about $23 billion.
Gates first programmed a computer at 13, creating a class scheduling system for his Seattle high school. As he gained more experience, he realized the potential that software held to change how humans worked, played and communicated. "When I was 19, I caught sight of the future and based my career on what I saw. I turned out to have been right," Gates wrote in his 1995 book "The Road Ahead."
Gates realized at an early stage of the PC revolution that software would be more important than hardware. Working with boyhood friend Paul Allen, Gates founded Microsoft, naming the company for its mission of providing microcomputer software.
Gates was born October 28, 1955, the second of three children in a prominent Seattle family. His father, William Henry Gates Jr., was a partner at one of the city's most powerful law firms, while his late mother, Mary, was an active charity fund-raiser and University of Washington regent.
