Bill Gates, best known as the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation, is an American businessperson, software developer, investor, and philanthropist.
Gates, along with his childhood friend Paul Allen, co-founded Microsoft in 1975 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He led the company as chairman and CEO until stepping down as CEO in January 2000, but he remained chairman and became chief software architect. In February 2014, he stepped down as chairman of Microsoft and assumed a new post as technology adviser to support the newly appointed CEO Satya Nadella.
In 2000, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates established the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest private charity. In 2009, along with Warren Buffett, Gates founded The Giving Pledge, whereby they and other billionaires pledge to give at least half of their wealth to philanthropy. The foundation aims to save lives and improve global health and is working in association with Rotary International to eliminate polio.
In 2015, Bill and Melinda Gates received the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian award for their social work in the country. Barack Obama honored the couple with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their philanthropic efforts in 2016.