Bill Gates

Bill Gates
Gates in June 2015.
Born	William Henry Gates III October 28, 1955 (age 60) Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Residence	Medina, Washington, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard University (no degree)
Occupation	Technology Advisor of Microsoft Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CEO of Cascade Investment Chair of Corbis
Years active	1975–present
Net worth	US$75.9 billion (May 2016)[1]
Board member of	Microsoft Berkshire Hathaway
Spouse(s)	Melinda Gates (m. 1994)
Children	3
Parent(s)	William H. Gates, Sr. Mary Maxwell Gates
Website	the Gates Notes
Signature

William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, entrepreneur, philanthropist, investor, andprogrammer.^[2][3] In 1975, Gates and Paul Allenco-founded Microsoft, which became the world's largest PC software company. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of chairman, CEO and chief software architect, and was the largest individual shareholder until May 2014.^[4][a] Gates has authored and co-authored several books.

Starting in 1987, Gates was included in theForbes list of the world's wealthiest people^[7]and was the wealthiest from 1995 to 2007, again in 2009, and has been since 2014.^[8]Between 2009 and 2014, his wealth doubled from US$40 billion to more than US$82 billion.^[9]Between 2013 and 2014, his wealth increased by US$15 billion.^[10] Gates is currently the wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of US$77.3 billion.^[11]

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Gates has been criticized for his business tactics, which have been considered anti-competitive, an opinion that has in some cases been upheld by numerous court rulings.^[12][13] Later in his career Gates pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.

Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January 2000. He remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect for himself.^[14] In June 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work, and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.^[15] He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie (chief software architect) and Craig Mundie (chief research and strategy officer).^[16] Ozzie later left the company. Gates's last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008.^[16] He stepped down as chairman of Microsoft, in February 2014, taking on a new post as technology adviser to support newly appointed CEO Satya Nadella.^[17]

Early life

Gates was born in Seattle, Washington on October 28, 1955. He is the son of William H. Gates, Sr.^[b] and Mary Maxwell Gates. Gates' ancestral origin includes English, German, andIrish, Scots-Irish.^[18][19] His father was a prominent lawyer, and his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way. Gates's maternal grandfather was JW Maxwell, a national bank president. Gates has one elder sister, Kristi (Kristianne), and one younger sister, Libby. He was the fourth of his name in his family, but was known as William Gates III or "Trey" because his father had the "II" suffix.^[20] Early on in his life, Gates's parents had a law career in mind for him.^[21] When Gates was young, his family regularly attended a church of the Congregational Christian Churches, a ProtestantReformed denomination.^[22][23][24] The family encouraged competition; one visitor reported that "it didn't matter whether it was hearts or pickleball or swimming to the dock … there was always a reward for winning and there was always a penalty for losing".^[25]

Microsoft

Main articles: History of Microsoft and Microsoft

BASIC

MITS Altair 8800 Computer with 8-inch (200 mm) floppy disk system

After reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics that demonstrated the Altair 8800, Gates contacted Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), the creators of the new microcomputer, to inform them that he and others were working on a BASIC interpreter for the platform.^[44] In reality, Gates and Allen did not have an Altair and had not written code for it; they merely wanted to gauge MITS's interest. MITS president Ed Roberts agreed to meet them for a demo, and over the course of a few weeks they developed an Altairemulator that ran on a minicomputer, and then the BASIC interpreter. The demonstration, held at MITS's offices in Albuquerque, was a success and resulted in a deal with MITS to distribute the interpreter as Altair BASIC. Paul Allen was hired into MITS,^[45] and Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard to work with Allen at MITS in Albuquerque in November 1975. They named their partnership "Micro-Soft" and had their first office located in Albuquerque.^[45]Within a year, the hyphen was dropped, and on November 26, 1976, the trade name "Microsoft" was registered with the Office of the Secretary of the State of New Mexico.^[45]Gates never returned to Harvard to complete his studies.

Microsoft's Altair BASIC was popular with computer hobbyists, but Gates discovered that a pre-market copy had leaked into the community and was being widely copied and distributed. In February 1976, Gates wrote an Open Letter to Hobbyists in the MITS newsletter in which he asserted that more than 90% of the users of Microsoft Altair BASIC had not paid Microsoft for it and by doing so the Altair "hobby market" was in danger of eliminating the incentive for any professional developers to produce, distribute, and maintain high-quality software.^[46]This letter was unpopular with many computer hobbyists, but Gates persisted in his belief that software developers should be able to demand payment. Microsoft became independent of MITS in late 1976, and it continued to develop programming language software for various systems.^[45] The company moved from Albuquerque to its new home in Bellevue, Washington, on January 1, 1979.^[44]

During Microsoft's early years, all employees had broad responsibility for the company's business. Gates oversaw the business details, but continued to write code as well. In the first five years, Gates personally reviewed every line of code the company shipped, and often rewrote parts of it as he saw fit.^[47]

Amancio Ortega Gaona

Amancio Ortega Gaona

Amancio Ortega Gaona (Spanish pronunciation: [aˈmanθjo orˈteɣa ɣaˈona]; born 28 March 1936) is a Spanish fashion businessman and founding chairman of the Inditex fashion group, best known for its chain of Zara clothing and accessories retail shops. In October 2015, he was ranked as the richest person in the world for four hours by Forbes, just ahead ofAmerican billionaire Bill Gates, with a net worth of USD $78.6 billion.^[4] He resides with his second wife in an apartment building in Galicia,Spain.

Amancio Ortega
Born	Amancio Ortega Gaona 28 March 1936 (age 80) Busdongo de Arbás, León, Spain
Residence	La Coruña, Spain
Nationality	Spanish
Occupation	Businessman
Known for	Co-Founder of Inditex Group
Net worth	US$72.3 billion (April 2016)[1]
Board member of	Inditex (CEO) Daez (COO)
Religion	Roman Catholicism[2][3]
Spouse(s)	Rosalía Mera (divorced) Flora Pérez Marcote(m. 2001)
Children	Sandra Ortega Mera Marcos Ortega Mera Marta Ortega Pérez
Signature

Biography[edit]

The youngest of four children, Ortega was born in Busdongo de Arbás, León, Spain, and spent his childhood in León. He left school and moved to La Coruña at the age of 14, due to the job of his father, a railway worker. Shortly after, he found a job as a shop hand for a local shirtmaker called Gala, which still sits on the same corner in downtown La Coruña, and learned to make clothes by hand.^[5] In 1972, he founded Confecciones Goa (his initials in reverse), selling quilted bathrobes which Ortega produced using thousands of local women organised into sewing cooperatives.^[6]

In 1975, he opened his first Zara store with his wife Rosalía Mera,^[7] so called because his preferred name Zorba was already taken.

Today, Zara is part of the Inditex group (Industrias de Diseño Textil Sociedad Anónima), of which Ortega owns 59.29%, and aside from over 6,000 stores includes the brands Zara,Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Zara Home, Kiddy's Class, Tempe, Stradivarius, Pull and Bear,Bershka and has more than 92,000 employees.^[8]

Ortega keeps a very low profile and, until 1999, no photograph of Ortega had ever been published and is known for his preference for a simple lifestyle. He refuses to wear a tie and typically wears a simple uniform of a blue blazer, white shirt, and gray pants, none of which are Zara products.^[9] He is also said to take a very active part in the production and design process in the company.

When he made a public appearance in 2000 as part of the warm-up prior to his company'sinitial public offering on the stock market in 2001, it made headlines in the Spanish financial press. However, he has only ever granted interviews to three journalists^[9] and his secrecy has led to the publication of books, such as Amancio Ortega: de cero a Zara (From Zero to Zara).

In 2011, Ortega announced his imminent retirement from Inditex, parent company of the Zara chain, stating that he would ask Inditex vice-president and CEO Pablo Isla to take his place at the helm of the textile empire.

He is currently the second richest man in the world with a total fortune of $73.1 billion ^[

Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett
Born	Warren Edward Buffett August 30, 1930 (age 85) Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Nebraska–Lincoln Columbia University
Occupation	Chairman & CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
Years active	1951–present
Salary	US$100,000[1]
Net worth	US$66.4 billion (May 2016)[2]
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Susan Thompson (1952–2004) Astrid Menks (m. 2006)
Children	Susan Howard Peter
Signature

Warren Edward Buffett (/ˈbʌfᵻt/; born August 30, 1930)^[3] is an American business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the most successful investor in the world.^[4][5][6] Buffett is the chairman, CEO and largest shareholder ofBerkshire Hathaway,^[7] and is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people. He was ranked as the world's wealthiest person in 2008^[8] and as the third wealthiest in 2015.^[9] In 2012 Time named Buffett one of the world's most influential people.^[10]

Buffett is often referred to as the "Wizard of Omaha" or "Oracle of Omaha,"^[11] or the "Sage of Omaha,"^[12] and is noted for his adherence tovalue investing and for his personal frugalitydespite his immense wealth.^[13] Buffett is a notable philanthropist, having pledged to give away 99 percent^[14] of his fortune to philanthropic causes, primarily via the Gates Foundation. On April 11, 2012, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer,^[15] for which he successfully completed treatment in September 2012.^[16] Buffett is also active in contributing to political causes, having endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for president during the 2016 campaign season.^[17]

Early life

Buffett was born in 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska, of distant French Huguenot descent.^[18] He was the second of three children and the only son of Leila (née Stahl) and CongressmanHoward Buffett,^[19] Buffett began his education at Rose Hill Elementary School. In 1942, his father was elected to the first of four terms in the United States Congress, and after moving with his family to Washington, D.C., Warren finished elementary school, attended Alice Deal Junior High School and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1947, where his senior yearbook picture reads: "likes math; a future stockbroker."^[20] After finishing high school and finding success with his side entrepreneurial and investment ventures, Buffett wanted to skip college to go directly into business but was overruled by his father.^[21][22]

Buffett displayed an interest in business and investing at a young age. Much of Buffett's early childhood years were enlivened with entrepreneurial ventures. One of his first business ventures, Buffett sold chewing gum, Coca-Cola bottles, or weekly magazines door to door. He worked in his grandfather's grocery store. While still in high school, he made money delivering newspapers, selling golf balls and stamps, and detailing cars, among other means. On his first income tax return in 1944, Buffett took a $35 deduction for the use of his bicycle and watch on his paper route.^[23] In 1945, as a high school sophomore, Buffett and a friend spent $25 to purchase a used pinball machine, which they placed in the local barber shop. Within months, they owned several machines in 3 different barber shops across Omaha. The business was sold later in the year for $1,200 to a war veteran.^[24]

Business career

See also: List of assets owned by Berkshire Hathaway

Buffett worked from 1951 to 1954 at Buffett-Falk & Co. as an investment salesman; from 1954 to 1956 at Graham-Newman Corp. as a securities analyst; from 1956 to 1969 at Buffett Partnership, Ltd. as a general partner and from 1970, as Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

By 1950, at 20, Buffett had made and saved $9,800 (over $96,000 inflation adjusted for the 2014 USD^[33]).^[34] In April 1952, Buffett discovered that Graham was on the board of GEICOinsurance. Taking a train to Washington, D.C. on a Saturday, he knocked on the door of GEICO's headquarters until a janitor admitted him. There he met Lorimer Davidson, Geico's Vice President, and the two discussed the insurance business for hours. Davidson would eventually become Buffett's lifelong friend and a lasting influence,^[35] and would later recall that he found Buffett to be an "extraordinary man" after only fifteen minutes. Buffett wanted to work on Wall Street; however, both his father and Ben Graham urged him not to. He offered to work for Graham for free, but Graham refused.^[36]

Buffett returned to Omaha and worked as a stockbroker while taking a Dale Carnegie public speaking course.^[37] Using what he learned, he felt confident enough to teach an "Investment Principles" night class at University of Nebraska-Omaha. The average age of his students was more than twice his own. During this time he also purchased a Sinclair Texaco gas station as a side investment. However, this was not successful.^{[citation needed]}

In 1952,^[38] Buffett married Susan Thompson at Dundee Presbyterian Church. The next year they had their first child, Susan Alice. In 1954, Buffett accepted a job at Benjamin Graham's partnership. His starting salary was $12,000 a year (approximately $105,000 inflation adjusted for the 2012 USD^[33]). There he worked closely with Walter Schloss. Graham was a tough boss. He was adamant that stocks provide a wide margin of safety after weighting the trade-off between their price and their intrinsic value. The argument made sense to Buffett but he questioned whether the criteria were too stringent and caused the company to miss out on big winners that had other appealing features.^{[citation needed]} That same year the Buffetts had their second child, Howard Graham. In 1956, Benjamin Graham retired and closed his partnership. At this time Buffett's personal savings were over $174,000 ($1.47 million 2012 USD^[33]) and he started Buffett Partnership Ltd..

Carlos Slim

2012
Born	Carlos Slim Helú January 28, 1940 (age 76) Mexico City, Mexico
Residence	Mexico City, Mexico
Nationality	Mexican
Education	Civil Engineering
Alma mater	Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Occupation	Chairman & CEO of Telmex,América Móvil, Samsung Mexicoand Grupo Carso
Known for	World's wealthiest person (2007, 2010–2013)
Net worth	US$58.6 billion (March 2016)[1]
Religion	Maronite Catholicism[2]
Spouse(s)	Soumaya Domit (m. 1967;d. 1999)
Children	Carlos Marco Antonio Everétt Patrick Soumaya Vanessa Johanna

Carlos Slim Helú (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkaɾlos esˈlim eˈlu]; born January 28, 1940) is a Mexican business magnate, investor, and philanthropist.^[3][4] From 2010 to 2013, Slim was ranked as the richest person in the world.^[5]Known as the "Warren Buffett of Mexico",^{[6][7][8][9][10]} he derived his fortune from his extensive holdings in a considerable number of Mexican companies through hisconglomerate, Grupo Carso.^[11] As of 3 November 2015 he was #2 on Forbes list of billionaires, with net worth estimated at US$77.1 billion.^[12]

Slim is the chairman and chief executive of telecommunications companies Telmex andAmérica Móvil, Latin America's largest mobile-phone carrier, which accounted for around $49 billion of Slim's wealth by the end of 2010.^[13]

Slim's total conglomerate comprises a diverse portfolio of businesses from a wide array of industries that include telecommunications, education, health care, industrial manufacturing, food and beverages, real estate, airlines, media, energy, hospitality, entertainment, technology, retail, sports and financial services.^{[3][4][14][15]}

Slim has overseen a vast business empire that is influential in every sector of the Mexican economy and accounts for 40% of the listings on the Mexican Stock Exchange,^[14] while his net worth is equivalent to about 6 percent of Mexico’s gross domestic product.^[16]

Early life[edit]

Slim always knew he wanted to be a businessman and began to develop his business and investment acumen at a young age.^[6][17] He received business lessons from his early childhood where his father Julian, often taught the young Carlos the value of financial literacy, management and accountability, teaching him how to read financial statements as well as the importance of keeping accurate financial records, a practice that Slim carries on to this day.^[18]

Slim's first investment began at the age of 11, when he invested in a government savings bond that taught him about the concept of compound interest. He eventually saved every financial and business transaction he made into his personal ledger book which he keeps to this day.^[19] At the age of 12, he made his first stock purchase, by purchasing shares in a Mexican bank.^[20] By the age of 15, Slim had become a shareholder in Mexico’s largest bank.^[16] At the age of 17, he earned 200 pesos a week working for his father's company.^[21]He went on to study civil engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where he also concurrently taught algebra and linear programming, which meant that he was both a student and professor.^[22][23][24]