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Bill Gate Bill Gate is an American business magnate, philanthropist, author and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the worlds wealthiest people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 8 percent of the common stock. He has also authored or co-authored several books. Time magazine named Gates one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th century, as well as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005, and 2006. Time also collectively named Gates, his wife Melinda and U2s lead singer Bono as the 2005 Persons of the Year for their humanitarian efforts.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gate - cite_note-68 In 2006, he was voted eighth in the list of Heroes of our time.Gates was listed in the Sunday Times power list in 1999, named CEO of the year by Chief Executive Officers magazine in 1994, ranked number one in the Top 50 Cyber Elite by Time in 1998, ranked number two in the Upside Elite 100 in 1999 and was included in The Guardian as one of the Top 100 influential people in media in 2001 Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a number of industry insiders criticize his business tactics, which they consider anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts . In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the BillMelinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000. | 
