World top billionaires

William Henry Gates III (born 28 October 1955) is an American entrepreneur, software executive, philanthropist, the world's third richest man (as of 2008) and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft he has held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and he remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 9 percent of the common stock.

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a large number of industry insiders criticise 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 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.

The annual Forbes magazine's list of The World's Billionaires ranked Gates as the richest person in the world from 1995 to 2007; recent estimates of his net worth are in excess of US$58 billion. When family wealth is considered, his family ranks second behind the Walton family, heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.

^