Love 'em or hate 'em, 

but one naturally admires them.....

William H. Gates
Chairman and Chief Software Architect
Microsoft Corporation

William (Bill) H. Gates is chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. Microsoft had revenues of $25.3 billion for the fiscal year ending June 2001, and employs more than 40,000 people in 60 countries.

Born on October 28, 1955, Gates and his two sisters grew up in Seattle. Their father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle attorney. Their late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent, and chairwoman of United Way International.

Gates attended public elementary school and the private Lakeside School. There, he discovered his interest in software and began programming computers at age 13.

In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University as a freshman, where he lived down the hall from Steve Ballmer, now Microsoft's chief executive officer. While at Harvard, Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer - the MITS Altair.

In his junior year, Gates left Harvard to devote his energies to Microsoft, a company he had begun in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Guided by a belief that the computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home, they began developing software for personal computers. Gates' foresight and his vision for personal computing have been central to the success of Microsoft and the software industry.

Under Gates' leadership, Microsoft's mission has been to continually advance and improve software technology, and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers. The company is committed to a long-term view, reflected in its investment of more than $4 billion on research and development in the current fiscal year.

In 1999, Gates wrote Business @ the Speed of Thought, a book that shows how computer technology can solve business problems in fundamentally new ways. The book was published in 25 languages and is available in more than 60 countries. Business @ the Speed of Thought has received wide critical acclaim, and was listed on the best-seller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and Amazon.com. Gates' previous book, The Road Ahead, published in 1995, held the No. 1 spot on the New York Times' bestseller list for seven weeks.

Gates has donated the proceeds of both books to non-profit organizations that support the use of technology in education and skills development.

In addition to his love of computers and software, Gates is interested in biotechnology. He sits on the board of ICOS, a company that specializes in protein-based and small-molecule therapeutics, and he is an investor in a number of other biotechnology companies. Gates also founded Corbis, which is developing one of the world's largest resources of visual information - a comprehensive digital archive of art and photography from public and private collections around the globe. In addition, Gates has invested with cellular telephone pioneer Craig McCaw in Teledesic, which is working on an ambitious plan to employ hundreds of low-orbit satellites to provide a worldwide two-way broadband telecommunications service.

Philanthropy is also important to Gates. He and his wife, Melinda, have endowed a foundation with more than $21 billion to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of global health and learning, with the hope that as we move into the 21st century, advances in these critical areas will be available for all people. To date, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed more than $2 billion to organizations working in global health; more than $500 million to improve learning opportunities, including the Gates Library Initiative to bring computers, Internet Access and training to public libraries in low-income communities in the United States and Canada; more than $200 million to community projects in the Pacific Northwest; and more than $29 million to special projects and annual giving campaigns.

Gates was married on Jan. 1, 1994, to Melinda French Gates. The couple has two children: a daughter, Jennifer Katharine Gates, born in 1996; and a son, Rory John Gates, born in 1999.

Gates is an avid reader, and enjoys playing golf and bridge.

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Alfred Nobel 

Born October 21, 1833 - Died December 10, 1896

Improved Explosive Compounds

Patent No. 78,317

  Inducted 1998

Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, was also a great industrialist.  Born in Stockholm, Sweden, Nobel moved with his family as a youngster to St. Petersburg where he was tutored privately by leading university professors.  After the Crimean War, the family returned to Sweden.  In 1863, Nobel developed the Nobel patent detonator, which detonated nitroglycerin using a strong shock rather than heat.  In 1865, the Nobel Company built the first factory for producing nitroglycerin.  This led to the establishment of many factories around the world.

Nitroglycerin in its fluid state is very volatile.  Nobel recognized this, and eventually patented dynamite, a combination of nitroglycerin absorbed by a porous substance.  This gave him an easily handled, solid yet malleable explosive.  Mining, railroad building, and other construction became safer, more efficient, and cheaper.

Nobel developed many improvements in explosives, and he held 355 patents in different countries in electrochemistry, optics, biology, and physiology.  Upon his death, his will provided that the bulk of his fortune go to a fund that would award prizes annually for advancements in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace.

Alfred Nobel - Biography

Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden on 21 October 1833. When he was eight, the family moved to Russia, where his father opened a mechanical engineering workshop. His interest in science, especially chemistry, appeared at an early age; in due course he also acquired extensive literary and philosophical knowledge, not least thanks to the ease with which he mastered foreign languages. He did most of his studying on his own, never taking any college or university examination.

He returned to Sweden in 1863 and began work as a chemist at his father's workshop at Heleneborg in Stockholm. Applying the Italian Sobrero's methods, he succeeded in further developing the explosive nitroglycerine, which he began manufacturing in Sweden in 1864. Plants subsequently opened in Germany and Norway, and then in other European countries and America. In 1867, Nobel obtained a patent on a special type of nitroglycerine, which he called "dynamite". The invention quickly proved its usefulness in building and construction in many countries. Production went hand-in-hand with research, energetically carried out at laboratories Nobel established in Stockholm and Hamburg and later also in Paris, at Bofors, and in San Remo. The original form of dynamite was gradually replaced by gelatin dynamite, which was safer to handle. In that development, too, Nobel played a major part.

Alfred Nobel wound up with a total of 355 patents, some more imaginative than useful, others both extremely practicable and valuable. He went on experimenting in pursuit of inventions in many fields, notably with synthetic materials. Income from the many enterprises all over the world in which he had interests made him one of the wealthiest men in Europe.

Nobel took a keen interest in social questions, and is known to have held radical views on many contemporary problems. His scientific and industrial activities took him to most European and American countries. He lived in Paris for a number of years, but planned to return to Sweden and settle down for good at Karlskoga, where he owned property. On 10 December, 1896, before the plans could be realised, he died at his home in San Remo in Italy.

Alfred Nobel was a lonely man and was often in poor health. He was very modest, often appearing shy to other people. Above all, he was engrossed in scientific ideas and in the practical management of his many European enterprises, and devoted himself night and day to his studies and work. His dream was to be of service to mankind.

In January 1897 it was learned that he had left the bulk of his considerable estate to a fund, the interest on which was to be awarded annually to the persons whose work had been of the greatest benefit to mankind. The statutes of the foundation which administered the fund - the Nobel Foundation - were adopted on 29 June 1900.

Alfred Nobel’s will

"The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses. The prizes for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiological or medical works by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm; that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm; and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration whatever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be a Scandinavian or not."

Paris, the 27th of November 1895.

Alfred Bernhard Nobel

Contact details: The Norwegian Nobel Institute
Drammensveien 19,
NO-0255 OSLO

+47 22 12 93 00 tel
+47 22 12 93 10 fax

Official site: www.nobel.no

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Mr Azim Premji, CEO, Wipro

Full Name : Azim Hasham Premji

D.O.B.: 24.07.1945

Education:

Abonded Engineering studies four quarters short of graduation at Stanford university in the U.S.[Father’s sudden death made him so]

Family Background:

Grandfather was rich rice exporter. Father was Chairman of Bombay State Electricity Board and a member on boards of RBI, SBI, LIC. He was offered ministership by Jinnah in Pakistan.

Business Background:

At 21, inherited Rs-7 crore worth Western India Vegetaable Products Company. The Amalner-based vanaspathi manufacturing company later became Wipro Products,Wipro Ltd and Wipro Corp.

Holdings in the company:

Holds 75% of the stake. Notional value of net worth estimated at Rs.1,28,672 crore at Wipro’s peak share price of Rs.9,600.Annual salary:Rs.21,00,000. Richest Indian according to Forbes magazine.

Passion:

Hiking, reading management books.

Lifestyle:

Regularly works 90 hours a week. Drives to work in his Ford Escort and often jogs up to to his tenth floor office to stay in shape.

Family:

Wife Yasmeen heads the Hasham Foundation. Elder son Rishad is a finance trainee with General Electric. Younger son Tariq is college student at Bangalore.

Most famous anecdote:

Arrived one evening at Bangalore airport, where there wasn’t a car waiting for him. So hailed an auto rickshaw and reached office.

Employee’s welfare:

Three office bearers’ worth more than Rs.100 crore, one of whom has since left to launch his own company. Number of shareholders who are billionaires : 32

Achievement of the company:

First company in India to get SEI-CMM level-5 rating. Level 6 implies 3.4 mistakes in a million opportunities. Market capitalization:Rs.55,176 crore.

Most admired Personalities:

GE chairman Jack Welsh, Michael dell of Dell Computers and Mahatma Gandhi.

Premji's Golden Words:

The nature of critical resources for an organization has changed from material and capital resources that categorized the manufacturing company, the critical resource in the information age is the power of mind.
Accept the certainty of uncertainty; things no longer happen in a linear, predictable manner. Use your imagination; innovation comes from it. Develop the art of influencing other team-members. Learn to persist in the face of bitter disappointments. Play to win. Integrity is not negotiable. Its not a black and white issue.

Premji’s guiding light:

Honesty and Integrity.

Wipro Profile

Wipro was previously known as Western India Vegetable Products Ltd was started by Mr.M.H Premji. The company manufactured vegetable oil, vegetable ghee and laundry soap. In 1966, upon the untimely demise of M.H. Premji, his son, Mr.Azim Hasham Premji, a 21-year-old student of engineering at Stanford University, was called upon to run the company. Under him, Wipro embarked on an ambitious phase of expansion. The business diversified into fluid power, soaps, toiletries, lighting and babycare products, and distribution was considerably expanded.Some of the important consumer products made by Wipro include soaps, babycare products, bulbs, tubelights, shampoos, powder etc. The financial strength of the consumer care division powered further diversifications, particularly in infotech and healthcare.

The Infotech era began in the late seventies and Wipro set up its IT business in Bangalore in 1980. Wipro became the No.1 listed company in the country in just 15 years. In a reorganisation, the firm went public with Wipro Technologies, the global IT services subsidiary, whose gross income grew by 65 percent to reach Rs.1042 crore($240 million).Wipro's software business was assessed at SEI CMM Level 5(.Wipro's technology divisions, global R&D and telecom solutions contributed 46 percent of the software revenue, and the balance was accounted for by enterprise solutions business. E-commerce contributed 15 percent of enterprise solutions revenue for the year. Sales and other incomes of the second division,Wipro Infotech, the Indian IT services and products business that takes care of networking solutions, customer services, computers and peripherals, grew by 20 percent to Rs.825 crore.

Wipro Technologies soon plans to tap the global capital body through an issue of American Depository Receipts(ADR) or Global Depository Receipts(GDR). It established its headquaters in Santa Clara, US, with Mr.Vivek Paul as the company's president and CEO.

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