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Steve
Ballmer
is the Chief Executive Officer of the
Microsoft Corporation, one of the world's
leading software development companies.
Microsoft is best known for its Windows
operating system for personal computing
devices and the Microsoft Office Suite.
Steven
Anthony Ballmer was born in Detroit, Michigan
on March 24th, 1956. His father was a
Swiss immigrant who worked as a manager
at the Ford Motor Company and his mother
was a Jewish American. Raised with academic
values, Ballmer graduated from Detroit
County Day School in 1973 (where he now
sits on the board of directors). While
there he managed the school's basketball
team and graduated as valedictorian.
With
a perfect score of 800 in the mathematical
section of the SATs, he was accepted into
Harvard where he befriended Bill
Gates, the man who eventually created
Microsoft. Although Ballmer was interested
in business and Gates prone to computer
programming, they seemed to make a good
match.
While
in college, Steve Ballmer sold ads for
the Harvard Crimson, managed the football
team, and worked on the Harvard Advocate.
After graduating magna cum laude in 1977
with a degree in applied mathematics,
Ballmer joined the staff at Procter &
Gamble to work as an assistant product
manager. Despite his success working on
publicity campaigns such as Duncan Hines
Brownie Mix, Ballmer decided to return
to school for his MBA after two years
with the company. He quickly enrolled
in Stanford Graduate School of Business.
After
his first year at Stanford, Steven Ballmer
decided to head up to Seattle to take
a job with Microsoft for the summer. At
the time Microsoft had only 23 employees
and a total of $12.5 in annual sales.
After a summer of work, Gates managed
to convince Ballmer to quit school and
work for Microsoft full time. They agreed
on a salary of $50,000 and 7% ownership
of the business. Ballmer never went back
to Stanford.
As
the first business manager hired by Bill
Gates, Ballmer took control of employee
pay scales and managed to double the number
of employees. While Gates continued to
work on the evolution of the software
industry, Ballmer focused on building
a greater financial structure for the
company.
Over
time Steve Ballmer headed various divisions
within the company such as Operating Systems
Development, Sales and Support, and Operations.
With his strong work ethic and equally
intensive management, Gates promoted Ballmer
to President in July of 1998. Two years
later he was named Chief Executive Officer
when Gates resigned from the position.
Although Bill Gates still maintains control
over the "technological vision",
Ballmer now controls the overall operations
of Microsoft.
Ballmer
sold of 8.3% of his stocks in 2003 but
still maintains control over 4% of Microsoft
shares. The same year saw Ballmer replacing
Microsoft's employee stock option program
with a stock grant program.
Steve
Ballmer, a Detroit Pistons fan (NBA basketball
team), has been happily married to Connie
Snyder since 1990 and is the proud father
of two sons. He is described as a funny,
focused, passionate, sincere, and dynamic
man that has infused Microsoft with energetic
leadership and vision over his time with
the company.
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