Bill Gates was a person.
Bill Gates . In 1975 , Gates and Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft , which became the world 's largest PC software company . During his career at Microsoft , Gates held the positions of chairman , CEO and chief software architect , while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014 . Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January 2000 , but he remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect for himself . Later in his career , Gates pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors , donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation , established in 2000 .