Bill Gates Height, Weight, Age, Body Statistics

Bill Gates is an American business magnate, software developer, investor, author, and philanthropist who has established himself as one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. He co-founded Microsoft with his childhood friend Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1975 and it became the world’s largest personal computer software company. During the course of his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), president, and chief software architect, while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014. In 1987, he was included in the Forbes list of the world’s wealthiest people and has since appeared on the list multiple times. Alongside Warren Buffett, he co-founded The Giving Pledge in 2010, a campaign to encourage extremely wealthy people to contribute a majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. As of September 2022, Gates had an estimated net worth of $106 billion, making him the 3rd-richest person in the world.

Born Name

William Henry Gates III

Nick Name

Trey

Sun Sign

Scorpio

Born Place

Seattle, Washington, United States

Residence

Medina, Washington, United States

Nationality

Education

Bill studied at Lakeside School. He was an exceptional student and graduated in 1973 as a National Merit Scholar.

After appearing for his SATs, he enrolled himself in Harvard College, where he opted for a pre-law major and chose mathematics and computer science courses at the graduate level. In the summer of 1974, he dropped out of Harvard after consulting with his parents and decided to pursue his business venture alongside Paul Allen.

Occupation

Business Magnate, Investor, Author, Philanthropist, Humanitarian, Co-founder of the Microsoft Corporation

Family

• Father – William H. Gates Sr. (Retired Attorney, Philanthropist, Author)
• Mother – Mary Maxwell Gates (Businesswoman) (Died on June 10, 1994)
• Siblings – Kristi (Kristianne) (Older Sister), Libby (Younger Sister)
• Others – William Henry Gates I (Paternal Grandfather), Lillian Elizabeth Rice (Paternal Grandmother), James Willard Maxwell (Maternal Grandfather) (Ex-National Bank President), Adele Thompson (Maternal Grandmother)

Manager

Michael Larson has managed Bill Gates.

Net Worth

As of November 2023, Bill’s net worth was over $110 billion according to Forbes.

Build

Average

Height

5 ft 9.5 in or 176.5 cm

Weight

74 kg or 163 lbs

Girlfriend / Spouse

Bill Gates has dated –

1. Melinda French (1987-2021) – Melinda worked as a product manager in Microsoft. They first met at a sales meeting in New York. The couple dated for a long duration of 7 years before finally tying the knot on January 1, 1994, in Lanai, Hawaii on a golf course. The couple has 3 children Jennifer Katharine (b. 1996), Rory John (b. 1999), and Phoebe Adele (b. 2002). On May 3, 2021, the couple decided to split and filed for divorce after a huge 34 years as a couple and 27 years of marriage. Their divorce was finalized on August 2, 2021.
2. Paula Hurd (2023-Present) – In February 2023, Bill was first rumored to be dating Paula Hurd. Paula is the widow of late Oracle CEO, Mark Hurd.

Race / Ethnicity

White

Bill has English, German, Scottish, and Scots-Irish ancestry.

Hair Color

Salt and pepper

Eye Color

Blue with a hint of green

Sexual Orientation

Straight

Distinctive Features

His glasses

Brand Endorsements

Bill Gates has appeared in a commercial for Microsoft.

Religion

Christianity

Best Known For

• Being the co-founder of the software giant, Microsoft Corporation which he launched in 1975 along with co-founder Paul Allen.
• Being included in the Forbes list of the world’s wealthiest people since 1987.
• His philanthropic work and his generosity. He co-founded a charitable organization called Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000.

First TV Show

Bill made his first television show appearance on the talk show Today in 1989.

Bill Gates Favorite Things

• Hobbies – Reading
• Book – The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
• Microsoft Project – Windows, Office
• Fast Food Outlet – In-N-Out, Burgermaster
• Spread – Butter, Peanut Butter, Cheese Spread
• Baseball Team – Seahawks
• Chef – Nathan Myhrvold
• Cuisines – Thai, Indian
• Snack – Cheeseburger

Source – GeekWire, Reddit, GatesNotes.com

Bill Gates Facts

1. In his early days, he was a workaholic and did not believe in the concept of taking a break or going on vacations.
2. As a teenager, he invented his computer program on the general electric computer when he was studying at the Lakeside School. It was a version of tic-tac-toe where you could play against the machine.
3. He traveled in economy class till he bought his private jet in 1997.
4. He scored a near-perfect 1590 out of 1600 on his SATs.
5. Bill also has somewhat of a wild boy streak. Gates was arrested in Mexico where he was caught driving without a license and ran a red light.
6. His most significant fear is a child getting hurt or falling sick.
7. He had initially thought of pursuing a career in law and mathematics as his father was a lawyer. He also had a keen interest in physics.
8. Bill is not well-versed in video games.
9. He enjoys playing a game of bridge.
10. He enjoys watching his daughter ride horses.
11. Bill has two dogs named Oreo and Nilla.
12. Gates and his then-wife Melinda received the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian award for their social work in the country, in 2015.
13. Bill’s biggest regret in the past had been not knowing any foreign languages.
14. He adopted vegetarianism for a year in his early 20s.
15. He is fond of eating at McDonald’s and loves Big Macs.
16. He is an avid reader and reads at least 50 books a year.
17. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the most extensive private charitable organization in the world.
18. He became the youngest self-made billionaire at the age of 31.
19. He is conscious of the consequences of climate change and the importance of global access to energy and once said, “If you gave me the choice between picking the next 10 presidents or ensuring that energy is environmentally friendly and a quarter as costly, I’d pick the energy thing.”
20. He got the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in January 2021.
21. In 2021, he authored a new book titled How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need.
22. Bill Gates is left-handed.
23. Bill and Melinda Gates had waited until 2021 to get divorced because of their youngest daughter Phoebe Adele. They wanted Phoebe to turn 18. Phoebe had turned 18 in September 2020.
24. In 2021, Gates was ranked #11 in the list of “50 Most Influential People on Twitter” as per Brandwatch Consumer Research. Taylor Swift was ranked #1.
25. Gates was ranked #2 in the list of the world’s most admired men of 2021 released by YouGov (global public opinion and data company). Barack Obama had topped the list.
26. In July 2022, Bill had shared his 48-year-old resume on LinkedIn which was from 1974. He had written that resume in his first year at Harvard University.
27. He is color blind.
28. In January 2023, Bill Gates-owned Microsoft laid off 10,000 employees. Satya Nadella, then-CEO of Microsoft had announced about the job cuts.
29. In January 2023, it was revealed that Bill had made an investment of approximately $12 million in the Australian start-up company, Rumin8, to tackle methane emissions from cow burps.
30. In February 2023, in a social media video, it was seen that Bill had teamed up with celebrity chef Eitan Bernath to make ‘roti’ from scratch. They prepared the dish together and later enjoyed it with ghee (clarified butter).
31. On February 17, 2023, Bill Gates purchased a minority stake (3.76%) in Dutch brewer Heineken for nearly $902 million. Gates bought a total of 6.65 million shares in Heineken Holding, in his individual capacity, and another 4.18 million shares through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust.
32. In 2023, he went on a tour in India where he met various influential personalities including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, Ratan Tata, and many others.
33. On World Toilet Day, on November 19, 2023, Bill went inside a sewer to visit the Sewer Museum in Brussels, Belgium.
34. In 2024, he revealed at an IIT Delhi event that when Microsoft had first hired IIT graduates from India, American and Indian media had criticized it. After 25 years, he was happy with his decision.

Featured Image by DFID – UK Department for International Development / Flickr / CC BY-2.0