Steven Anthony Ballmer is an American businessman and investor who also served as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Microsoft from 2000-2014. Currently he owns the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
According to Forbes, his total estimated wealth, at present, is $87.3B that makes him the eleventh richest person on Earth.
Steve Ballmer attended Harvard University, where he was a manager for the Harvard Crimson football team and a member of the Fox Club. He also worked with The Harvard Crimson newspaper as well as the Harvard Advocate.
Before Microsoft, he worked as an assistant product manager at Procter & Gamble for 2 years. He also tried his hands at writing screenplays in Hollywood.
Ballmer was hired at Microsoft by his Harvard classmate Bill Gates on June 11, 1980. With his joining, he became Microsoft's 30th employee and the 1st business manager hired by Gates. Within a span of 20 years of his association with Microsoft, Ballmer headed several Microsoft divisions, including operations, operating systems development, and sales and support.
He led Microsoft's development of the .NET Framework. Ballmer eventually became Microsoft's president in July 1998, and replaced Bill Gates as CEO of Microsoft on January 13, 2000. As the company's CEO, Ballmer handled finances and daily operations.
Under Ballmer's leadership, Microsoft's share price stagnated. The lackluster stock performance occurred despite Microsoft's financial success at that time. The company's annual revenue surged from $25 billion to $70 billion, while its net income increased 215% to $23 billion, and its gross profit of 75 cents on every dollar in sales is double that of Google or IBM.
On June 19, 2012, Ballmer revealed Microsoft's first ever computer device, a tablet called Microsoft Surface at an event held in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Later he announced Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia's mobile phone division in September 2013.
On August 23, 2013, the company announced that Ballmer would retire within the next 12 months. On February 4, 2014, Indian born Satya Nadella succeeded Ballmer as CEO of Microsoft. On August 12, 2014, Ballmer became the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers.
Previously, Ballmer also served as director of Accenture Ltd. and a general partner of Accenture SCA from 2001 to 2006.
Soon after he retired as CEO of Microsoft, Ballmer began his philanthropy work and on November 12, 2014 he along with his wife donated $50 million to the University of Oregon. The funds were meant to focus towards scholarships, public health research and advocacy, and external branding/communications.
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In 2017, he launched USAFacts.org, a non profit organization with a goal to allow people to understand US government revenue, spending and societal impact.
Steven Ballmer was born in Detroit, Michigan. He lived from 1964 to 1967 in Brussels, where he attended the International School of Brussels. Ballmer graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in applied mathematics and economics in 1977. He also joined the Stanford Graduate School of Business for MBA, but dropped out in 1980 to join Microsoft. Ballmer is married to Connie Snyder and the couple with their 3 sons lives in Hunts Point, Washington.
