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Xavier Niel

Xavier Niel (born 25 August 1967) is a French entrepreneur and businessman, active in the telecommunications and technology industry and best known as founder and majority shareholder of the French Internet service provider andMobile operator Iliad trading under the Free brand (France’s second-largest ISP, and third mobile operator). He is also co-owner of the newspaper Le Monde, and co-owner of the rights of the song "My Way" and owner of Monaco Telecom. He currently acts as Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors & Chief Strategy Officer for Iliad.

His net worth is about $10 billion USD.

Biography

Niel started early by developing telecommunication and data services. He embarked at a young age on an entrepreneurial career. At 19, he successfully created then sold his first company, a Minitel (a French forerunner of the internet) service company. This minitel-site provided sex oriented chat services. In 1995, he invested in the first Internet Service Provider in France, World-NET, created the previous year by Sébastien Socchard, Philippe Langlois and Pierre Séguret. This company was sold the year before the internet bubble burst.

After taking over a company subsequently renamed Iliad, Xavier Niel launched in 1996 the 1st reversed directory service on the Minitel. This service is still responsible for 1 million euros of revenue per year for Iliad.

In 1999, he created Free, a French Internet service provider. The name came from the fact that modem access was really free, which caused some stir among other (non-free) French Internet providers, as well as it raised some questions about Free's business model. In 2002, Free launched a broadband package at a low price (€29.99 per month), which became the benchmark in the market. At the same time, Free developed and launched the Freebox: the first triple-play multi-service box in France. The free modem service had brought to the company a strong potential customers portfolio, many of them switching to the broadband for the sake of comfort.

Niel remains Iliad’s majority shareholder, holding 63.93% of the share capital.

In March 2010, Xavier Niel cofounded with Jeremie Berrebi Kima Ventures, a fund dedicated to invest in 50 to 100 startups a year everywhere in the world. Kima Ventures already invested in 330 companies from February 2010 to August 2014 in 32 countries. Business Insider described Xavier Niel and Jeremie Berrebi as almost certainly the most active angel investors in the world.

In late 2010 Niel was a member of a group of investors which acquired a controlling stake in the newspaper Le Monde.

In 2012, he created Free Mobile, which revolutionizes mobile telephony in France, with a 25 US$ plan, including unlimited voice calls, text and data (3G/4G).

In 2013, Xavier Niel created a school named 42, which is a tech school with no teachers, no books, no tuition for 1000 people every year.

In 2014, Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) sold its 55% economic interest in Monaco Telecom to NJJ Capital, an investment vehicle controlled by Xavier Niel for US$445 million.

Judiciary problems

On 28 May 2004, Xavier Niel was indicted and detained for a month for alleged procuring and misuse of company assets, which occurred in several Sex shops in which he was a shareholder. On 30 August 2005, a Nolle prosequi was pronounced for the procuring part of his indictment, but on 13 October 2006, he was given a 2 years suspended prison sentence for the misuse of company assets.

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Ingvar Kamprad

Ingvar Feodor Kamprad ( pronunciation (help·info); born 30 March 1926) is a Swedish business magnate. He is the founder of IKEA, a Swedish retail company specialising in furniture, and is one of the richest people in the world.

Early life

Kamprad was born in Pjätteryd (now part of Älmhult Municipality), Sweden. He was raised on a farm called Elmtaryd (presently standardized Älmtaryd) near the small village of Agunnaryd in Ljungby Municipality in the province ofSmåland. His paternal grandfather was from Germany, but moved the family to Sweden.

Career

Kamprad began to develop a business as a young boy, selling matches to neighbors from his bicycle. He found that he could buy matches in bulk very cheaply from Stockholm, sell them individually at a low price, and still make a good profit. From matches, he expanded to selling fish, Christmas tree decorations, seeds, and later ballpoint pens and pencils. When Kamprad was 17, his father gave him a cash reward for succeeding in his studies.

IKEA was founded in 1943 at Kamprad's uncle Ernst's kitchen table. In 1948, Kamprad diversified his portfolio, adding furniture. His business was mostly mail-order. The acronym IKEA is made up of the initials of his name (Ingvar Kamprad) plus those of Elmtaryd, the family farm where he was born, and the nearby village Agunnaryd.

In June 2013, Kamprad resigned from the board of Inter IKEA Holding SA and his youngest son Mathias Kamprad replaced Per Ludvigsson as the chairman of the holding company. Following his decision to step down, the 87-year-old founder explained, ”I see this as a good time for me to leave the board of Inter IKEA Group. By that we are also taking another step in the generation shift that has been ongoing for some years.” Mathias and his two older brothers, who also have leadership roles at IKEA, work on the corporation's overall vision and long-term strategy.

Net worth

According to Swedish business weekly Veckans Affärer, he is one of the wealthiest people in the world. This report is based on the assumption that Kamprad owns the entire company, an approach that both IKEA and the Kamprad family reject. Kamprad retains little direct ownership in the company, having transferred his interest to Stichting INGKA Foundation and INGKA Holding as part of a complex tax sheltering scheme that leaves his actual degree of control vague.

In March 2010, Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at US$23 billion, making him the eleventh richest person in the world. A year later, he fell to 162nd after his lawyers produced documents that prove that the foundation he established and heads in Liechtenstein owns IKEA, and its bylaws bar him and his family from benefiting from its funds. In October 2012, Kamprad was listed as the fifth wealthiest person in the world in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with an estimated net worth of $42.6 billion. Forbes reported Kamprad's net worth as of February 2014 to be $4.2 billion.

Stichting INGKA Foundation

The Dutch-registered Stichting INGKA Foundation is named after Ingvar Kamprad (i.e., ING + KA) who owns INGKA Holding, the parent company for all IKEA stores. In May 2006 the charitable foundation was reported by The Economist to be the world's wealthiest charity, however The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundationhas since become larger. Despite its large endowment its primary purpose is corporate tax-minimisation and anti-takeover protection for IKEA. Kamprad is chairman of the foundation.

Works

While generally a private person, Kamprad has published a few notable works. He first detailed the IKEA concept of frugality and enthusiasm in a manifesto entitledA Testament of a Furniture Dealer. Written in 1976, it has since been considered the fundamental ideology of the IKEA furniture retail concept. He also worked with Swedish journalist Bertil Torekull on the book Leading by Design: The IKEA Story. In the autobiographical account, he further describes his philosophies and the trials and triumphs of the founding of IKEA.

There are many stories about Kamprad that are a part of his heritage. When he talks to IKEA staff at different locations, his main theme is often management by example, and he uses himself as an example. He always travels economy class in planes, and if he goes by train, if possible, he will sit in second class. He never stays at expensive hotels, and his theme from the A Testament of a Furniture Dealer, simplicity, is totally integrated in all activities within IKEA.

Fascist involvement

In 1994, the personal letters of the Swedish fascist activist Per Engdahl were made public after his death, and it was revealed that Kamprad had joined Engdahl's pro-fascist New Swedish Movement (Nysvenska Rörelsen) in 1942, at the age of 16. Kamprad had raised funds for and recruited members to said group at least as late as September 1945. When Kamprad quit the group is unknown, but he remained a friend of Engdahl until the early 1950s.

Kamprad devotes two chapters to his time in Nysvenska Rörelsen in his book Leading by Design: The IKEA Story and, in a 1994 letter to IKEA employees, called his affiliation with the organization the "greatest mistake of his life". Kamprad has explained his teenage engagement in New Swedish Movement as being politically influenced by his father and grandmother in Sudet-Germany.

In 2011, journalist Elisabeth Åsbrink revealed that the Swedish security service created a file on Kamprad already in 1943 titled "Nazi" and that Kamprad in an interview in 2010 told her: "Per Engdahl is a great man, and I will maintain that as long as I live".

Writing in UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph in August 2011, Richard Orange noted of the 1943 file: "It proves for the first time that Mr Kamprad was an active member of Svensk Socialistisk Samling – the successor to the Swedish Nationalist Socialist Workers Party – even detailing his membership number, 4013. It quotes letters intercepted from Mr Kamprad, then 17, in which he enthuses about recruiting new members and says that he ‘misses no opportunity to work for the movement’". Orange added, "The secret service concluded that, as Mr Kamprad received the party's youth newspaper, he must have held ‘some sort of official position within the organisation’. The following day, the BBC reported: "A Swedish expert on far-right extremism, Anna-Lena Lodenius, told Radio Sweden that Mr Kamprad's Nazi involvement could no longer be dismissed as the by-product of an accidental friendship with Per Engdahl. His involvement in another fascist organisation, she said, showed he must have been ‘perfectly aware’ of what it stood for". The BBC report also noted that, "a spokesman for Mr Kamprad said he had long admitted flirting with fascism, but that now, ‘there are no Nazi-sympathising thoughts in Ingvar's head whatsoever’".

Personal life

Kamprad lived in Epalinges, Switzerland, from 1976 to 2014. According to an interview with TSR, the French-language Swiss TV broadcaster, Kamprad drives a 1993 Volvo 240, flies only economy class, and encourages IKEA employees always to write on both sides of a piece of paper. He reportedly recycles tea bags and is known to pocket the salt and pepper packets at restaurants." In addition, Kamprad has been known to visit IKEA for a "cheap meal". He is known for purchasing Christmas paper and presents in post-Christmas sales. The firm he created is still known for the attention it gives to cost control, operational details and continuous product development, allowing it to lower its prices by an average of 2-3% over the decade to 2010, while continuing its global expansion. Kamprad explains his social philosophy in his "Testament of a Furniture Dealer": "It is not only for cost reasons that we avoid the luxury hotels. We don't need flashy cars, impressive titles, uniforms or other status symbols. We rely on our strength and our will!"  Kamprad owns a villa in Switzerland, a large country estate in Sweden and a vineyard in Provence, France. Additionally, Kamprad was known for driving a Porsche for several years.

While working with furniture manufacturers in Poland earlier in his career, Kamprad became an alcoholic. In 2004, he said that his drinking was under control.

Kamprad's second wife, Margaretha Kamprad-Stennert, died from an undisclosed disease in 2011. In June 2013, Ingvar Kamprad announced that he intended to move back to Småland in Sweden by the end of the year.

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Amancio Ortega Gaona

Amancio Ortega Gaona (Spanish pronunciation: [aˈmanθjo orˈteɣa ɣaˈona]; born 28 March 1936) is a Spanish fashion executive and founding chairman of the Inditex fashion group, best known for its chain of Zara clothing and accessories retail shops. In June 2015, he was ranked as the second richest person in the world by Forbes with a net worth of USD $72.3 billion. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index on June 2015 listed Amancio Ortega Gaona as the world's second richest person with reported combined assets of USD $72 billion. He resides with his second wife in an apartment building in Galicia, Spain.

Biography

The youngest of four children, Ortega was born in Busdongo de Arbás, León, Spain, and spent his childhood in León. He moved to A Coruña at the age of 14, due to the job of his father, a railway worker. Barely in his teens, Ortega found a job as a shop hand for a local shirtmaker called Gala, which still sits on the same corner in downtown A Coruña. In 1972, he founded Confecciones Goa (his initials in reverse), selling quilted bathrobes which Ortega produced using thousands of local women organised into sewing cooperatives. In 1975, he opened his first Zara store, so called because his preferred name Zorba was already taken. He opened many big Zara Stores during the eighties throughout Galicia. Today, Zara is part of the Inditex group (Industrias de Diseño Textil Sociedad Anónima), of which Ortega owns 59.29%, and aside from over 6,000 stores includes the brands Zara, Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Zara Home, Kiddy's Class, Tempe, Stradivarius, Pull and Bear, Bershka and has more than 92,000 employees.

Ortega keeps a very low profile and, until 1999, no photograph of Ortega had ever been published. He goes to the same coffee shop every day and eats lunch with his employees in the company's cafeteria. He refuses to wear a tie and typically wears a simple uniform of a blue blazer, white shirt, and gray pants; none of which are Zara products. He is also said to take a very active part in the production and design process in the company.

When he made a public appearance in 2000 as part of the warm-up prior to his company's initial public offering on the stock market in 2001, it made headlines in the Spanish financial press. However, he has only granted interviews to three journalists ever^[8] and his secrecy has led to the publication of books, such asAmancio Ortega: de cero a Zara (From Zero to Zara).

In 2011, Ortega announced his imminent retirement from Inditex, parent company of the Zara chain, stating that he would ask Inditex vice-president and CEO Pabl

o Isla to take his place at the helm of the textile empire.

He maintained his #3 spot on the Forbes list from 2013, but increased his net worth $7 billion for a total of $64 billion.

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Richard Branson

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Richard Branson

Richard Branson was born in Blackheath, London 18 July 1950. His father was a barrister. Branson attended Scaitcliffe School and later Stowe school. Suffering from dyslexia, Branson did not excel at studies; he was more interested in extra curricular activities, such as football and cricket. At the age of 15, he had started to try his first business ventures, which included trying to grow trees and another raising budgerigars.

On one occasion, he was caught leaving the bedroom of the headmaster’s daughter, and Branson was expelled from school. This left him devastated and he wrote a suicide note, suggesting he couldn’t cope. When the note was discovered, he was forgiven, but failing at his studies, Branson left school at 16 – an early high school drop out.

After quitting school, he moved back to London, where he began his first successful business. He started a magazine about youth culture, called The Student. It was produced by students, for students and was launched in 1966. Branson was able to attract significant advertisement from firms wishing to tap the student market; this enabled him to distribute the first 50,000 copies for free.

The 1960s in London, was known as the ‘swinging sixties’ And Branson admits he was living the life of a hippy, in a London commune – a large shared house, surrounded by the music and drugs of the age. However, although he may have been a hippie, Branson also had a keen business sense, and he set up a mail order record company, called Virgin to complement the student magazine. Virgin was suggested by one of Branson’s workers – who suggested the name because they were all new at business. Branson later said he got into business out of accident – not to make money, but out of frustration things weren’t better.

I became an entrepreneur by mistake. Ever since then I’ve gone into business, not to make money, but because I think I can do it better than it’s been done elsewhere. And, quite often, just out of personal frustration about the way it’s been done by other people.(interview with Martyn Lewis in his book, Reflections on Success (1997)

With modest profits from his magazine and mail order business, he was able to get a record shop on Oxford Street, London. Undercutting other High Street retailers, Virgin experienced good growth. Though, on one occasion, due to an unpaid tax bill, Branson’s mother Eve had to re-mortgage her house to help Branson stay afloat.

As the record business expanded, Branson created his own record label, with Nik Powell – Virgin Music in 1972. Within a year, Branson had a great stroke of luck. His first artist, Mike Oldfield, recorded the album ‘Tubular Bells’ and this proved a smash hit, staying in the charts for over four years. This high profile and earnings, helped Branson to sign up some of the top bands of the era, including Culture Club, the Rolling Stones, Genesis, and controversial bands such as the Sex Pistols.

In 1984, Branson branched out into his biggest business venture – forming Virgin Atlantic Airways, and started competing in a market dominated by big national carriers, such as British Airways. At times this rivalry was intense, with Virgin accusing British Airways of dirty tricks in poaching customers. British Airways eventually settled out of court. However, in 1992, Branson had to sell Virgin records to EMI for £500m to help keep a struggling Virgin Atlantic afloat.

Other big business ventures of the Virgin group include Virgin Mobile in 1999 and entering into British railways with Virgin Trains in 1993. In 2007, he created Virgin Money. Less successful ventures include Virgin cola, and Virgin vodka. He also failed to win a contract to run the National Lottery – even though he offered to do it not for profit.

My philosophy is that if I have any money I invest it in new ventures and not have it sitting around. (Interview, Sunday Times, 16th January, 2000

Richard Branson has sought to cultivate a different approach to running a business. He says the ethos of his businesses is to build from the bottom up – taking into account the feedback from all staff, and not just top down hierarchy.

‘As much as you need a strong personality to build a business from scratch, you also must understand the art of delegation. I have to be good at helping people run the individual businesses, and I have to be willing to step back. The company must be set up so it can continue without me.’ (Virgin Quotes)

He has also been willing to take risks, setting up unconventional business plans. In his autobiography, he also says that having fun, is an important element of his approach to life and business:

“Fun is at the core of the way I like to do business and it has been key to everything I’ve done from the outset. More than any other element, fun is the secret of Virgin’s success. I am aware that the ideas of business as being fun and creative goes right against the grain of convention, and it’s certainly not how the they teach it at some of those business schools, where business means hard grind and lots of ‘discounted cash flows’ and net’ present values’.”

— Richard Branson, Losing My Virginity: How I’ve Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way

Environment

Branson states that after meeting Al Gore, he became concerned about the issue of global warming. He has founded Virgin fuels to promote alternative to fossil files. He has also promised to use profits from his transport business to develop more environmentally friendly fuels. In 2007, he set up the Virgin Earth Challenge which offers a reward of $25 million to the best commercially viable design for removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, without negative effects.

World Record Attempts

Richard Branson has undertook many endurance world record attempts. He set the fastest transatlantic sailing record in 1986. He also made several record attempts in hot air balloons. In 1998, he failed in a bid to make a global flight in a hot air balloon.

Charity

With Nelson Mandela and Peter Gabriel, Branson formed a new group ‘The Elders’, which seeks to find peaceful resolutions to long standing conflicts and global problems. Other members included Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter and Mohammed Yunus. Branson is also involved in a variety of other charities, such as education in Kenya, Soldiers for Peace and has served on the global commission on drug policy.

Wealth

The Sunday Times estimate the wealth of Richard Branson at £3,065 billion, making him the fourth richest person in the UK. Much of this is invested in off-shore havens.

“Biography of Richard Branson”, Oxford, www.biographyonline.net, 5th Feb. 2013

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Steve Jobs

Steven Paul Jobs – (Feb 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011)

Steve Jobs was an American businessman and inventor who played a key role in the success of Apple computers and the development of revolutionary new technology such as the iPod, iPad and MacBook.

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

– Steve Jobs as quoted in The Wall Street Journal (Summer 1993).

Early Life

Steven Jobs was born in San Francisco, 1955, to two university students Joanne Schieble and Syrian born John Jandali. They were both unmarried at the time, and Steven was given up for adoption.

Steven was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs, whom he always considered to be his real parents. Steven’s father Paul encouraged him to experiment with electronics in their garage. This led to a life long interest in electronics and design.

Steve Jobs attended a local school in California and later enrolled at Reed College, Portland, Oregon. His education was characterised by excellent test results and potential. But, he struggled with formal education and his teachers reported he was a handful to teach.

At Reed College he attended a calligraphy course which fascinated him. He later said this course was instrumental in Apple’s multiple typefaces and proportionally spaced fonts.

Steve Jobs in India

In 1974, Jobs travelled with Daniel Kottke to India in search of spiritual enlightenment. They travelled to the Ashram of Neem Karoli Baba in Kainchi. During his several months in India he became aware of Buddhist and Eastern spiritual philosophy. At this time he also experimented with psychedelic drugs; he later commented that these counter-culture experiences were instrumental in giving him a wider perspective on life and business.

“Bill Gates‘d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.” – Steve Jobs, The New York Times, Creating Jobs, 1997

Job’s first real computer job came working for Atari computers. During his time at Atari, Jobs came to know Steve Wozniak well. Jobs greatly admired this computer technician, whom he had first met in 1971.

Steve Jobs and Apple

In 1976, Wozniak invented the first Apple I computer. Jobs, Wozniak and Ronald Wayne then set up Apple computers. In the very beginning Apple computers were sold from Jobs parents’ garage.

Over the next few years, Apple computers expanded rapidly as the market for home computers began to become increasingly significant.

In 1984, Jobs designed the first Macintosh. It was the first commercially successful home computer to use a graphical user interface (based on Xerox Parc’s mouse driver interface.) This was an important milestone in home computing and the principle has become key in later home computers.

Despite the many innovative sucesses of Jobs at Apple, there was increased friction between Jobs and other workers at Apple. In 1985, removed from his managerial duties, Jobs resigned and left Apple. He later looked back on this incident and said that getting fired from Apple was one of the best things that happened to him – it helped him regain a sense of innovation and freedom, he couldn’t find working in big company.

Life After Apple

On leaving Apple, Jobs founded NeXT computers. This was never particularly successful, failing to gain mass sales. However, in the 1990s, NeXT software was used as a framework in WebObjects used in Apple Store and iTunes store. In 1996, Apple bought NeXT for $429 million.

Much more successful was Job’s foray into Pixar – a computer graphic film production company. Disney contracted Pixar to create films such as Toy Story, A Bug’s Life and Finding Nemo. These animation movies were highly successful and profitable. This earn jobs significant respect and success.

In 1996, the purchase of NeXT bought Jobs back into Apple. He was given post of chief executive. At the time, Apple had fallen way behind rivals such as Microsoft. Apple were struggling to even make profits.

Return to Apple

Jobs launched Apple on a new direction. With a certain degree of ruthlessness, some projects were summarily ended. Instead, Jobs promoted the development of a new wave of products which focused on accessibility, appealing design and innovate features.

The iPod was a revolutionary product in that it built on existing portable music devices and set the standard for portable digital music played. In 2008, iTunes became the second biggest music retailer in US, with over 6 billion song downloads and over 200 million iPods sold.

In 2007, Apple successfully entered the mobile phone market, with the iPhone. This used features of the iPod to offer a multi-functional and touch screen device to become one of best selling electronic products.

Apple has been rated No.1 in America’s most admired companies. Jobs management has been described as inspirational, although c-workers also state, Jobs could be a hard task master and was temperamental. NeXT Cofounder Dan’l Lewin was quoted in Fortune as saying of that period, “The highs were unbelievable … But the lows were unimaginable”

“My job is not to be easy on people. My jobs is to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better.” – All About Steve Jobs.

Under Jobs, Apple managed to overtake Microsoft in terms of share capitalisation. Apple also gained a pre-eminent reputation for the development and introduction of ground breaking technology. Interview in 2007, Jobs said

There’s an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love. ‘I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.’ And we’ve always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very very beginning. And we always will.”

Despite, growing ill-health, Jobs continued working at Apple until August 2011, when he resigned.

Wealth

“I was worth over $1,000,000 when I was 23, and over $10,000,000 when I was 24, and over $100,000,000 when I was 25, and it wasn’t that important because I never did it for the money.”

– Steve Jobs

Jobs earned only $1million as CEO of Apple. But, share options from Apple and Disney gave him an estimated fortune of $8.3billion

In 1991, he married Laurenne Powell, together they had three children and lived in Palo Alto, California.

“Biography of Steve Jobs”, Oxford, www.biographyonline.net, 25th Feb. 2012

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Bill Gates

(William Henry Gates was born on October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington)

As founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates is one of the most influential and richest people on the planet. Recent estimates of his wealth put it at $56 billion, this is the equivalent of the combined GDP of several African economies. In recent years he has retired from working full time at Microsoft, instead he has concentrated on working with his charitable foundation “The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation”

Bill Gates foundation of Microsoft

Bill Gates founded Microsoft in 1976 when he formed a contract with MITTS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) to develop a basic operating system for their new microcomputers. In the early days Bill Gates would review every line of code. He was also involved in several aspects of Microsoft’s business such as packing and sending off orders.

The big break for Microsoft came in 1980 when IBM approached them for a new BASIC operating system for its new computers. In the early 1980s IBM was by far the leading PC manufacture. However increasingly there developed many IBM PC clones; (PCs developed by other companies compatible with IBM’s). Microsoft worked hard to sell its operating system to these other companies. Thus Microsoft was able to gain the dominant position of software manufacture just as the personal computer market started to boom. Since its early dominance no other company has come close to displacing Microsoft as the dominant provider of computer operating software.

Bill Gates – Windows

In 1990 Microsoft released its first version of Windows. This was a break through in operating software as it replaced text interfaces with graphical interfaces. It soon became a best seller and was able to capture the majority of the operating system market share. In 1995 Windows 95 was released, setting new standards and features for operating systems. This version of windows has been the backbone of all future releases from Windows 2000 to the latest XP and Vista.

Throughout his time in office Bill Gates has been keen to diversify the business of Microsoft. For example Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has become the dominant web browser, although this is mainly because it comes pre installed on most new computers. In one area at least Microsoft has not gained Monopoly power, and that is in the area of search engines. MSN live search has struggled to gain more than 12% of market share. In this respect Microsoft has been dwarfed by Google. Nevertheless the success of Microsoft in cornering various aspects of the software market has led to several anti trust cases. In 1998 US v Microsoft, Microsoft came close to being broken up into 3 smaller firms. However on appeal Microsoft were able to survive as a single firm.

Philanthropic Activities – Bill Gates

Bill Gates is married to Melinda French (married in 1992). They have 3 children Jennifer (1996), Rory (1999) and Phoebe (2002). With his wife Bill Gates formed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill Gates says much of the inspiration came from the example of David Rockefeller. Like Rockefeller, Gates has sought to focus on global issues ignored by the government; he also expressed an interest in improving the standards of public school education in the US. He has appeared with Oprah Winfrey to promote this objective. In respect to charitable, philanthropic activities Gates has also received encouragement from investor Warren Buffet. Recently Gates announced that from 2008 he would work full time on his philanthropic interests. Forbes magazine 2004 estimated that Gates has given over $24 billion dollars in the 4 years from 2000 to 2004.

“Biography of Bill Gates”, Oxford, www.biographyonline.net, 25th Feb. 2010

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Jonathan Goldsmith[The Most Interesting Man in the World]

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Jonathan Goldsmith

Jonathan Goldsmith (born September 26, 1938) is an American actor. He began his career on the New York stage, then started a career in film and television. He appeared in several TV shows from the 1960s to the 1990s. He is best known for appearing in television commercials for Dos Equis beer, beginning in 2006, as the character The Most Interesting Man in the World, in which he speaks with a distinctive deep voice inspired by his deceased sailing partner and friend Fernando Lamas.

Early years

Goldsmith was born on September 26, 1938, in New York. His mother was a Conover model and his father was a track coach at James Monroe High School. His family was Jewish.^[2] Goldsmith left home at 17 to attend Boston Universityand pursue a career in acting.

Career

Jonathan has made over 350 television appearances in his career. Among them was the role of Marvin Palmer in the 1964 Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Blonde Bonanza." To advance his acting career, Goldsmith moved toCalifornia from New York in 1966. Like many aspiring actors, he found it difficult to gain enough acting work to survive and wound up working various jobs, including driving a garbage truck and working in construction, to help make ends meet.

During his early years in film, Goldsmith performed as "Jonathan Lippe", having taken the name of his stepfather at the age of six. He subsequently changed his professional name back to his birth name, later recalling, "It always made me feel bad for my father, who never caused me any grief about it.... As my career grew and my son was born, I changed my name back to my real name, Goldsmith, so my father could enjoy his son's success and have a grandson to carry his name as well."

Goldsmith first established himself as an actor in Western films, with 25 such appearances. In the 1976 film The Shootist, Goldsmith played a villain who was shot between the eyes by hero John Wayne, who fired blood capsules from a special pellet gun at pointblank range into Goldsmith's face for seven painful takes.

Goldsmith also made guest appearances on 45 television series, including Adam-12, Knight Rider, CHiPs, Eight Is Enough, The Rockford Files, Hawaii Five-O,Barnaby Jones, MacGyver, Murder, She Wrote, Charlie's Angels, Manimal, The Fall Guy, Dynasty, T.J. Hooker, Hardcastle and McCormick, Magnum, P.I., Knots Landing, The A-Team, as well as a few made-for-TV movies. His longest run in a television series was on Dallas, in which he appeared 17 times.

In the 1980s Goldsmith started network marketing businesses (waterless car wash products) Dri Wash & Guard, and also SPRINT which was successful enough to allow him to "retire" from the Hollywood scene; he purchased an estate in the Sierra. He taught theater at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York from 1999-2004. He moved onto a large sailboat moored in Marina del Rey. As of 2011 he and his wife Barbara (who was his agent when he obtained the Dos Equis role) are moving to a house in the area of Manchester, Vermont.

Advertising work

Beginning in April 2007 and continuing through 2015, Goldsmith had been featured in a high profile television ad campaign, promoting Dos Equis beer. The campaign, which transformed Goldsmith into "the most interesting man in the world", has been credited for helping to fuel a 15.4 percent sales increase for the brand in America in 2009 and also made him into a very popular meme.

Goldsmith landed the Dos Equis gig by auditioning for the role. Auditioners were given the ending line "...and that's how I arm wrestled Fidel Castro" and asked to improvise. Goldsmith began his audition by removing one sock and then improvised for 30 minutes before reaching the concluding line. 

Charity work

In the past, Goldsmith has been an advocate for landmine victim support and has assisted the Morris Animal Foundation in their efforts to prevent and cure cancer in dogs. 

Goldsmith supported the S.A.B.R.E Foundation, whose mission is to protect and preserve the Siberian Tiger.

Goldsmith’s other charitable causes are Free Arts for Abused Children, which pairs artists with children in protective custody, and the Stella Link Foundation, a group calling attention to child sex trafficking in Cambodia.

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