William (Bill) H. Gates
We chose William (Bill) H. Gates for the leader to research and have our presentation on. He was the Founder and is currently the Chairman of Microsoft Corp. Bill is actually a hard person to get reliable information on, since Microsoft and himself have tried to make it so that the information that gets out is only things that show him in a good light.
Bill Gates was born in 1955 to William and Mary Gates, a Seattle attorney and schoolteacher. He attended public elementary school, and then went to Lakeside School, a private junior and high school. It was at Lakeside that he began to program computers at age 13.
Gates attended Harvard University starting in 1973 as a freshman. He left Harvard in his junior year to concentrate fully on Microsoft, a company he started in 1975 with Paul Allen, a childhood friend. He began the personal computing company with the vision of a computer on every office desk and in every home.
Gates’ leadership style is an authoritative type of leadership. He had the vision of what Microsoft should be and channeled everyone towards that one common vision. Throughout the computer industry he is looked at as the one visionary, and therefore can pull off the authoritative approach. However, he also can delegate and gives management their space to conduct their own business, so he does somewhat use a more participative form of the authoritative style.
We chose Bill Gates not only because of his role with Microsoft but also because of his philanthropic work. Gates married Melinda Gates in 1994, and a little while later they started the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has an endowment o ...