" I don't think that I.Q. is as fungible as I used to. To succeed, you also have to know how to make choices and how to think more broadly." -- Bill Gates

Born: 1955
Industry: Computer Software

Estimated wealth: $61.7 billion

Brief Biography:

American computer billionaire. The only son of a lawyer and an educator, Bill Gates was a math whiz kid and underachiever until he learned about computers in Harvard. By the time he was twenty-one, while still in Harvard, he built a computer and developed software with Paul Allen. When their program worked, they licensed the first BASIC compiler to the manufacturers of the first microcomputer, dropped out of Harvard and cofounded Microsoft.

Microsoft started skyrocketing in 1980, when IBM asked it to design an operating system, MS-DOS. Microsoft went public in 1986 after developing Excel, Word, and Windows. By 1991 he was worth some $4.4 billion. They sold MS-DOS to IBM five years later. Gates married Melinda French in 1994. They built a $50 million house lakeside on Seattle's Lake Washington. Now he is estimated to be worth 61.7 Billion, although much of it is in stock, which can lose or gain billions in value overnight.

Accomplishments:

In the decade since Microsoft has gone public, Gates has donated more than $270 million to charities, including $200 million to the William H. Gates Foundation. The focus of Gates' giving is in three areas: education, population issues and access to technology.

Books by and/or about:

• The Road Ahead
• Business at the Speed of Thought: Using a Digital Nervous System
• A Select list on Bill Gates and Microsoft
• The Wealthy 100 : From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates-A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present
• Business the Bill Gates Way: 10 Secrets of the World's Richest Business Leader

Websites:

• The Gates Operating System
• Magic Gates Ball
• How to Become As Rich As Bill Gates
• PCMagazine Article
• Microsoft's Official Bill Gates Bio