Steven Ballmer - CEO of Microsoft

Steven Ballmer was born in Detroit, Michigan. His father, Frederick Ballmer, was a Swiss immigrant; his mother, Beatrice Dworkin, was a Jewish American. He grew up with his younger sister in Farmington Hills near Detroit, where his father worked as a manager at Ford Motor Company.

During his studies at the Detroit Country Day School, Ballmer was the manager of the school's basketball team. In 1973, he graduated from school with a grade point average of 4.0 and was the valedictorian of his class. He scored a perfect 800 on the math SAT and got a scholarship to Harvard University, helped by his competing in math tournaments. In his freshman year, Ballmer developed a close friendship with his dorm mate, Bill Gates, a friendship that continued even after Gates dropped out of university to start his own software company (Microsoft). At Harvard, Ballmer was the advertising manager for both The Harvard Crimson and The Harvard Advocate. In 1977, he graduated magna cum laude with a BA in Applied Mathematics and Economics.

After graduation, Ballmer worked for two years at Procter & Gamble Co. as an assistant product manager, before joining Stanford Graduate School of Business to get an MBA degree - only to drop out of the program a year later when Gates invited him to work in his company. Ballmer became the 24th employee of Microsoft on June 11, 1980 as the first business manager hired by Gates. He was initially offered a salary of $50,000 as well as a percentage of ownership of the company. When Microsoft was incorporated in 1981, Ballmer owned 8% of the company. Ballmer has headed several divisions within Microsoft, such as Operating Systems Development, Operations and Sales & Support. In July 1998, he was promoted to president and in January 13, 2000 he was named Chief Executive Officer when Gates stepped down from the role. While Gates handles the technological vision, Ballmer handles company finances. In 2003, Ballmer sold 8.3% of his shareholding leaving him with a stake of around 4% of the company. The same year, Ballmer ended the Microsoft stock-options program, a program he himself was instrumental in setting up in the early 90s which made so many of its employees millionaires. Ballmer is the longest-serving employee of Microsoft.