Microsoft has been molded by Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Ballmer, and Satya Nadella throughout the past fifty years within the male-centric technology sector.
Gates and Allen, who grew up together in Seattle, established Microsoft in 1975 with the aim of placing a computer in every workplace and household.
Gates
William Henry Gates III was born in 1955 in Seattle, where he started developing software programs when he was just 13 years old.
Gates left Harvard after his sophomore year to launch Microsoft alongside Allen.
The childhood buddies developed the MS-DOS operating system, later rebranded as Windows, which subsequently became dominant in professional environments.
Gates built a reputation as a formidable and sometimes ruthless leader.
Critics argue he unfairly wielded Microsoft's clout in the market, and the US pressed a winning antitrust case against the company in the late 1990s.
In 2000, Gates ceded the CEO job to Ballmer, whom he befriended while the two were students at Harvard.
Gates decided to dedicate himself to a charitable foundation he co-founded with his wife, Melinda.
In 2020, he stepped down from his position on Microsoft's board of directors -- just months following the company's acknowledgment of a previous "close personal" relationship involving one of its employees.
In the subsequent year, the pair went their separate ways. Melinda Gates blamed him due to his connection with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who had been sentenced for abusing underage females.
His backing of COVID-19 vaccination initiatives and agricultural programs aimed at addressing climate change and empowering women turned Gates into a prime target for conspiracy theories.
Unfounded claims about Gates involve him incorporating tracking devices into vaccinations.
Allen
Paul Allen, born in 1953 in Seattle, was a schoolmate of Gates.
Allen was 10 when he started a science club at home, and would later bond with young Gates over computers.
"Microsoft would never have happened without Paul," Gates wrote in tribute to Allen, who died of cancer complications in 2018.
Gates recounted how Allen showed him a magazine article about a computer powered by a latest chip, emphasizing that a technological revolution was occurring without their involvement.
Allen is recognized for merging "microcomputer" and "software" to create "Micro-Soft."
In 1983, he parted ways with Microsoft but continued as a board member until 2000. Later, he accused Gates and Ballmer of plotting to "cheat him out of his shares" during his battle with cancer.
Ballmer
Ballmer was viewed as an enthusiastic salesperson who boosted Microsoft's revenue but overlooked innovation.
Originally from Michigan and possessing a gift for mathematics, he completed his studies at Harvard.
Ballmer became part of Microsoft in 1980 and served as the best man at Bill and Melinda Gates' wedding in 1994.
In 2000, Ballmer, who was then 69 years old, took over from Gates as CEO.
His energetic gestures, clumsy dance steps, and vocal exertions left him immortalized as an internet meme and part of company legend.
During Ballmer's tenure, he supervised the introduction of Xbox gaming consoles, Surface tablets, and the Bing search engine. Additionally, under his leadership, Microsoft acquired both Skype and Nokia's mobile phone unit.
Throughout his time at Microsoft, the company appeared to focus heavily on PCs even as consumer habits shifted rapidly towards mobile devices and cloud-based applications.
His unsuccessful products encompassed the Zune digital music players, Kin mobile phones, and a specific edition of Windows called Vista.
Nadella
Nadella became the CEO in early 2014 and credits his childhood experiences playing cricket in India for teaching him valuable leadership abilities.
In August, Nadella will reach the age of 58. He was recruited in 1992 when he was a student at the University of Chicago.
In the early stages of his academic journey, his inclination towards constructing things steered him toward studying computer science, an area he couldn’t explore during his time as an engineer at Mangalore University.
Nadella's biography at Microsoft highlights his experience across various roles including research, business operations, servers, and online services divisions.
To unwind, he resorts to poetry, comparing it to intricate information condensed to convey profound concepts with minimal wording.
Nadella maintained that for Microsoft to thrive, it had to embrace a "mobile-first, cloud-first" paradigm.
Shortly after taking office as CEO, he called for the largest restructuring in Microsoft's history.
He is recognized for steering Microsoft away from a diminishing packaged software industry toward the thriving realm of cloud services.
Microsoft has been pouring billions of dollars into artificial intelligence, investing in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and integrating this technology throughout its product line.
In a rare stumble, Nadella triggered an uproar his first year as chief by suggesting during an on-stage discussion that working women should trust "karma" when it comes to securing pay raises.
Microsoft's acquisitions under Nadella include Sweden-based Mojang, maker of the popular video game Minecraft; social network LinkedIn, and the GitHub online platform catering to software developers.
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