Bill Gates
Bill Gates is Chairman of software giant Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), a company he founded in 1975. Microsoft helped revolutionize the personal computer with its operating system.
Bill Gates has been ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world from 1995 to 2007. In June 2007, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim passed Gates as the world's richest according to Forbes.
Gates married Melinda French in 1994 and they have three children. With his wife, Gates is a major philanthropist. The two started the Bill and Milinda Gates Foundation in 2000.