William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28 1955) is the co-founder, chairman, former chief software architect, and former CEO of Microsoft Corporation. He is also the founder of Corbis, a digital image archiving company. The Forbes international rich list has ranked him as the richest person in the world for the last twelve years straight. In 1999, Gates' wealth briefly surpassed $100 billion making him America's first centibillionaire. According to the Forbes 2004 magazine, Bill Gates's net worth was approximately $46.6 billion. When family wealth is considered, his family ranks second behind the Walton family.

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. He is widely respected for his foresight and ambition.Vietnam gives Gates star welcome. BBC News. April 22, 2006Baldauf, Scott. Bill Gates, the biggest thing in India since the Beatles. Christian Science Monitor. November 14, 2002 He is also frequently criticized as having built Microsoft through unfair or unlawful business practices. Since amassing his fortune, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money (about 52% of his total fortune) to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, founded in 2000. In June 2006 he announced that he would move to a part-time role with Microsoft (namely surrendering the power of managing day-to-day operations) in 2008 to begin a career in philanthropy, but will remain as chairman.

Bill Gates, his wife Melinda and U2's lead singer Bono were collectively named by Time as the 2005 Persons of the Year for their humanitarian efforts. That same year he was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. In 2006, Gates Foundation was awarded the Premio Príncipe de Asturias en Cooperación Internacional. In a list compiled by the magazine New Statesman in 2006, he was voted eighth in the list of "Heroes of our time".

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