The world of consumer electronics and modern computing would not be what it is today without the contributions of Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft Corp. A longtime friend of Bill Gates, Allen was instrumental in the company’s creation as well as the purchase of QDOS.
Born in Seattle, Washington, Allen attended Lakeside School, a private school in the Seattle area, where he went to school with Gates. Allen used the school’s teletype terminal to develop his programming skills. He went on to study at Washington State University and later accepted a job as programmer for Honeywell in Boston, MA. Working at Honeywell placed him near his friend Gates, who was studying at Harvard.
In 1975 the two friends founded ‘Micro-soft’ in Albuquerque, NM and got into the world of microcomputers. With the removal of the hyphen, some cool software and an once-in-a-lifetime deal with IBM, the rest is history. In 1980, Allen organized Microsoft’s purchase of QDOS, the predecessor of MS-DOS, for $50,000 for use in their client’s IBM personal computer. It catapulted Microsoft Corp. to the forefront of personal computing.
In 1983 Allen was in Paris on business when he became so ill, he had to fly back to Seattle early. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. The experience changed him – he resigned from Microsoft in 1983 and its all-consuming work ethic, but kept a large chunk of the company. He remained on the board until 2000.
When Microsoft went public in 1985, Allen owned 28 per cent (Gates owned 49 percent). Allen has been selling his Microsoft shares since he left the company, but still owns more than $3 billion worth.
Since his time at Microsoft, Allen has focused on philanthropy. Allen established the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation in 1986 and has awarded nearly $30 million in scientific and research grants annually to a five-state area of the Pacific Northwest. The foundation is made up of four program areas: Arts and Culture, Community Development and Social Change, Innovations in Science and Technology, and the Youth Engagement.
He also financed SpaceShipOne, which won a prize for the first privately built craft to enter sub-orbital space. He created the Experience Music project and the Science Fiction museum in Seattle, both non-profit institutions. Allen's investment company, called Vulcan was founded in 1987. He was an early investor in AOL and was one of the original backers of the movie studio DreamWorks SKG, the creator of the Shrek series.
Still single, Allen plays rock guitar, basketball and is interested in technology and science fiction. He was instrumental in taking Microsoft from a start-up to domination of PC operating systems with MS-DOS.