William Henry Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, inventor, philanthropist and computer programmer. He was born in Seattle, Washington on October 28, 1955. His father, William H. Gates II was a Seattle attorney and his mother, Mary Maxwell Gates was a school teacher and chairperson of the United Way charity. Gates and his two sisters had a comfortable upbringing, with Gates being able to attend the exclusive secondary "Lakeside School".
Bill Gates started studying at Harvard University in 1973 where he spent time with Paul Allen. Gates and Allen worked on a version of the programming language BASIC, that was the basis for the MITS Altair (the first microcomputer available). He did not go on to graduate from Harvard University as he left in his junior year to start what was to become the largest computer software company in the world; Microsoft Corporation.
After dropping out of Harvard Bill Gates and his partner Paul Allen set about revolutionizing the computer industry. In 1975 the company Micro-soft was formed, which was an abbreviation of microcomputer software. It soon became simply "Microsoft"® and went on to completely change the way people use computers. Bill Gates has not just used his excellent education and love of computers to make himself a rich and powerful entrepreneur, he also made his dream of "a computer in every household and business" to become true.