Next year, Microsoft will be 35 years old. It grew from a handful of smart people to a 90,000 smart people company today, with offices in 134 countries. Do you know who the founding people were?
Back row from left to right:
Steve Wood
Steve Wood, 53, one of the first of the early employees to leave in 1980 after his wife Marla filed a sex discrimination lawsuit. Wood held a string of jobs before founding mobile messaging group Wireless Services Corporation in 1996. They live in Washington State, estimated to be worth $15m.
Bob Wallace
Bob Wallace joined as a production manager and software designer in 1978. Quit in 1983 to start software company QuickSoft, which he later sold. Devoted much of his time and money to research in psychedelic drugs, partly through the Promind Foundation, which he founded in 1998. Died of pneumonia in 2002 age 53.
Jim Lane
Project manager, he worked on software for Intel's microprocessors and developed the relationship between the two companies. Left in 1985 and was reported to say that Microsoft had "beat the enthusiasm out of me". He runs his own software company. Reported to be worth $20m.
Middle row from left to right:
Bob O'Rear
One of the most experienced of the early employees, he had advanced degrees in mathematics and astrophysics and had been in the control room at NASA during the first Moon landing. He joined as chief mathematician in 1977. He left in 1993 and now runs a cattle ranch in Texas. Said to be worth around $100m.
Bob Greenberg
He worked at Microsoft between 1977 and 1981, developing the BASIC programming language. Left to launch the Cabbage Patch Dolls, a huge craze in the 1980s. Today, he develops software for golf courses. Reported to be worth $20m. He was also responsible for organising the photo session.
Marc McDonald
The first employee hired in 1977 to work on BASIC, he left in 1984, expressing his frustration that the company had grown "too big". Rejoined in the late 1990s when Microsoft took over the company he was working for.
Gordon Letwin
He stayed for longer than any of the original 11, apart from Gates. He left in 1993 to "kick back" with his wife. A software developer, he was chief architect of the OS/2 operating system. Said to be worth around $20m.
Front row from left to right:
Bill Gates
Co-founder of the company alongside Paul Allen. He built Microsoft into the world's largest software company. Today he is the world's richest man, worth around $50bn. This week, he announced plans to give up the day-to-day running of the business by 2008 to focus on his family's charitable foundation, which combats diseases including polio, malaria and Aids. He will remain Microsoft's non-executive chairman
Andrea Lewis
She was hired as the company's first technical writer. She left in 1983 and became a freelance journalist and fiction writer. She now lives in Seattle with her husband and two children. She is said to be worth around $2m
Marla Wood
An administrative assistant and book-keeper, she worked at Microsoft until 1980. She and husband Steve Wood became the first of the core group to leave after she filed a sex discrimination suit, which was settled out of court. The Woods are said to be worth $15m.
Paul Allen
He co-founded the company with Gates in 1975 and is today not far behind his former colleague on the annual Forbes rich list, ranked sixth last year with almost $23bn. He left his day job at Microsoft in 1983 to fight Hodgkins Disease but remained on the board until 2000. A canny investor, he built his wealth through investment vehicle Vulcan Ventures. He is chairman of cable TV company Charter Communications, and owns the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team and the Seattle Seahawks American football franchise.
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1 comment:
It's no surprise that everyone one of them is a millionaire, if not many times over.
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