Bill Gates steps down, but not out of public eye

Allison Linn Senior writer • Profile • E-mail

You may love or you may hate him, but you’d have to be living under a rock — without an Internet connection — not to know who Bill Gates is.

Gates was for years the world’s richest man, even if it wasn’t a mantle he wore gladly. He earned his billions by co-founding Microsoft Corp., a company whose technology — again — may be loved or may be hated but almost can’t be avoided in modern society.

Now he’s poised to leave his full-time work at Microsoft to spend most of his energy on another endeavor that fuels the public’s fascination with him: the world's biggest philanthropy, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, funded largely by his own fortune.

(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

Chances are, his new job won’t do much to diminish the world’s obsession with him. For many, the mystique starts with one simple fact: all that money.

“If he was the third-richest man in the world, I don’t think there would be anything near the mystique around Bill Gates that there is,” said Gary Rivlin, a journalist and author of “The Plot to Get Bill Gates.”

In fact, Gates did fall to the No. 3 spot this year, according to Forbes magazine. Still, Forbes estimated that his fortune stands at about $58 billion, and his name is forever associated with the many years he ranked as the world’s richest person.

“It’s almost like being compared to God, in some ways. People would say, as a matter of speech, he’s not as powerful as God or he’s not as rich as Bill Gates,” said Michael Cusumano, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management who has written several books on Microsoft and the technology industry.

Beyond the wealth, there is the quintessential American entrepreneurial story of how he got it. It’s true that Gates, 52, came from a well-to-do family and had privileges including an education at an elite private school that gave him his first exposure to computers at a very young age.

Still, Gates is credited with being among the earliest to recognize two things that would change the technology field forever: the power of personal computing and the potential to make a fortune selling software. Fueled by that vision, Gates famously dropped out of Harvard and started Microsoft with his high school friend Paul Allen. From there they built one of the nation's most storied corporate successes.

“It’s easy to lose track of the fact that this is two kids with a dream,” said Ed Lazowska, who holds the Bill and Melinda Gates chair of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington and serves on the technical advisory board for Microsoft’s research arm.

Ballmer becomes lone voice at Microsoft’s helm On last full day of work, kind words and tears   Video: Extended Brokaw interview with Gates   Video: Predictions from 1992 Cool geek or a cold-blooded executive? Rockefeller 2.0: Gates relaunches philanthropy Newsweek: End of an era for company Newsweek: Q&A with Gates Microsoft's hits and misses New Microsoft team faces browser 'nightmare' What Ray Ozzie can do for Microsoft Analysis: Microsoft struggles to evolve   Images: Gates over the years |   Speak out

Lazowska credits Gates with helping inspire many students to go into computer science, and he says the mystique surrounding Gates still exists even as other technology luminaries, such as the co-founders of Google, have ascended as role models. When Gates recently spoke at the University of Washington, attendance was limited to 750 people, but Lazowska said “we could have gotten 10,000 people to show up.”

“I think there are other people known as well as Bill, but I don’t think his influence has diminished,” Lazowska said.

Beyond the halls of academia, Gates is renowned for another reason: He has made it socially acceptable, if not actually desirable, to be a geek.

A corporate mogul with billions at his disposal, he still often looks as though he forgot to comb, and perhaps even wash, his hair. Wherever he is, he’s likely the smartest person in the room, and yet he can pepper even the most sophisticated conversation with mannerisms reminiscent of a teenager, including a high-pitched voice, a penchant for words like “super” and a distinct strain of social awkwardness.

Even those who are highly critical of how Microsoft used its dominant position in the computing market concede it is fascinating to spend time with him, in part because, unlike most other executives, he rarely seems scripted.

MORE FROM U.S. BUSINESS

U.S. business Section Front

Geithner: Stimulus is on the right path States scramble for slice of Boeing's business AIG seeks clearance for more bonuses Lawmakers argue over billions left in TARP Madoff won't appeal 150-year sentence SEC to call for Calif. IOUs treated as securities Latest Buffett lunch auctions for $1.7 million Ron Paul’s bipartisan attack on the Fed Banks draw line over accepting Calif. IOUs Ad pushes legal pot as solution to Calif. deficit U.S. business Section Front   Add U.S. business headlines to your news reader: