Bill Gates came from a family of entrepreneurship and high-spirited liveliness. William Henry Gates III was born in Seattle, Washington on October 28, 1955. His father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle attorney. His late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent, and chairwoman of United Way International.
In 1975, before graduation Gates left Harvard to form Microsoft with his childhood friend Paul Allen. The pair planned to develop software for the newly emerging personal computer market.
Bill Gate’s company, Microsoft, became famous for their computer operating systems and killer business deals. For example, Bill Gates talked IBM into letting Microsoft retain the licensing rights to MS-DOS an operating system that IBM needed for their new personal computer. Gates proceeded to make a fortune from the licensing of MS-DOS.
On November 10, 1983, at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, Microsoft Corporation formally announced Microsoft Windows, a next-generation operating system.
On January 1, 1994, Bill Gates married Melinda French Gates. They have three children.
Bill Gates Philanthropist
Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, have endowed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with more than $28.8 billion (as of January 2005) to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of global health and learning.
World Liberty TV was on hand to listen to world’s richest man Bill Gates (estimated at 72 Billion dollars according to Forbes Magazine) talk about Philanthropy and his commitment through The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
We are excited to once again “host the conversation” about the role and opportunity for corporations to have a positive impact on the most pressing social issues of our time. Public-private partnerships have gone well past the days of pure philanthropy to a more strategic dialogue on how to collaborate to address poverty, illiteracy, equality, and human suffering.
Companies are also becoming more active in their support for environmental causes than some of the government functionalities of the world’s top countries.
We have partnered with top nonprofit and NGO groups for this event, including the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Future 500 and the Council for Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy. We thank them for their ongoing support and involvement. We celebrate innovation with our Big Idea Lightning Round formats. We recognize the importance of leadership and vision once again honoring top CEOs in our Corporate Responsibility Magazine Responsible CEO of the Year reception and awards dinner.
And we celebrate the power of coming together as a community to have dialogue, debate, and camaraderie. COMMIT! Forum continues to be one of the top global conferences on corporate responsibility and, as such, is an excellent place for CR professionals, media, foundations, and NGOs to network and prioritize their agenda and have fun while learning from the top thought leaders today.
“We hope you enjoy the event as much as we enjoy hosting you and have a positive impact on the world we all share,” said Elliot H. Clark, CEO of SharedXpertise, and publishers of Corporate Responsibility Magazine.
The World Liberty TV Team was on hand to cover this two day conference, listening to and interviewing some of the best companies who engage in Corporate Responsibility.
James J. Murren (Jim) is Chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts International, headquartered in Paradise, Nevada.
Jim Murren attended Roger Ludlowe High School in Fairfield, CT, where he was a member of the Flying Tigers cross country team coached by J. Carter O’Dwyer. Murren received his undergraduate degree at Trinity College where he studied art history and urban planning and continued studies in Rome, Italy. He joined the Wall Street firm of Cyrus J. Lawrence as a securities analyst, and earned the Chartered Financial Analyst certification in 1991.
He was elected a member of the firm’s Board of Directors, becoming the youngest member ever of the company’s board. During his career on Wall Street he brought about a pivotal recapitalization of MGM Grand, Inc. in 1996, and served as a Managing Director and the Director of U.S. equity research for Deutsche Bank.
In 1998, he moved to the corporate sector, joining MGM as CFO and member of its Board of Directors. In 1999, he became President, and was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in 2007; he became Chairman and CEO in December 2008, his 10th year at the company. Under his tenure, the company embarked upon an extremely successful decade of growth. Murren was the architect of $15 billion of acquisitions including Primadonna Resort & Casino in 1998, Mirage Resorts in 2000, and Mandalay Resort Group in 2005 acquisitions that helped transform MGM into the world’s largest gaming company. He was repeatedly honored as the gaming and lodging industry’s top CFO by Institutional Investor magazine.
World Liberty TV’s Executive Producer went one on one with this Legendary Chairman, CEO James J. Murren. See this great interview on why MGM is a leader in the Hospitality Business.
