Bill Gates: Guest Speaker At Harvard
Bill Gates, the co-founder and chairman of the leading Microsoft company, and one of the world’s richest man, will be the principal speaker at this year’s commencement ceremony on June 7 at Harvard University. It is a known fact that Microsoft makes over $44 billion in revenue a year.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the charity Gates and his wife started, which donates more than $3.6 billion to global health organizations and $2 billion to educational programs worldwide. While Gates will remain Microsoft chairman, he plans to step down in 2008 to devote himself full-time to his charity work.
As with most things there is a sweet irony to Harvard’s asking him to speak at their college. For example Gates dropped out of Harvard in 1975 to concentrate on developing Microsoft, the company he brilliantly founded with Paul Allen.
Still, the university considers Gates “a member of the Harvard College Class of 1977,” and this spring that class will celebrate its 30th reunion. Among Gates’ fellow Harvard alums is Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, whom Gates met as an undergrad. According to Harvard, Ballmer lived down the hall at Currier House.