Here is a look at the life of Paul Allen, philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft.
Personal:
Birth date: January 21, 1953
Birth place: Seattle, Washington
Birth name: Paul Gardner Allen
Father: Kenneth Allen, librarian
Mother: Edna Faye (Gardner) Allen, teacher
Education: Attended Washington State University, 1972-1974
Other Facts:
Allen has donated more than $2 billion to charity.
Owns a 414-foot yacht named Octopus that cost $200 million to build. Among its amenities are a recording studio, helipads and two submarines.
Also owns a 303-foot yacht named Tatoosh.
Allen is also a musician, having received his first guitar at 16. He’s been a big fan of Jimi Hendrix since seeing him in concert in the late 1960s.
Has a minority stake in the Seattle Sounders FC soccer team.
Timeline:
1968 – Paul Allen meets fellow student Bill Gates in the computer lab at the private Lakeside School in Seattle.
1974 – Drops out of Washington State to take a job at Honeywell in Boston.
1975 – Allen and Gates found Microsoft (then called Micro-Soft) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Allen is the company’s chief technologist.
1977 – Gates and Allen sign a formal partnership agreement, giving Gates 64% of Microsoft and Allen 36%.
1980 – Microsoft hires Steve Ballmer as its business manager.
1982 – Diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease.
1983 – Allen leaves Microsoft. Gates offers Allen $5 a share for his stake in the company. Allen counters with a demand for $10 a share. Gates rejects that offer and Allen leaves the company with all of his stock. He remains on the board of directors.
1986 – Starts Vulcan Inc. to manage his business and philanthropic interests.
1988 – Buys the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team.
1988 – Establishes the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
1997 – Allen purchases the Seattle Seahawks football team.
2000 – The EMP (Experience Music Project) opens in Seattle. The museum, funded by Allen, costs $100 million.
2000 – Steps down from Microsoft’s board of directors. By the end of 2000, Allen divests himself of $8.5 billion worth of Microsoft stock.
2002 – Allen gives $14 million to the University of Washington to build the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering.
2003 – Creates the Allen Institute for Brain Science “to accelerate understanding of the human brain in health and disease,” after his mother is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Allen has given the institute more than $500 million since its inception.
2004 – Funds SpaceShipOne, whose mission is to become the world’s first commercial space vehicle.
2004 – The Flying Heritage Collection opens north of Seattle, housing Allen’s restored collection of World War II-era planes.
2009 – Diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
July 15, 2010 – Signs the Giving Pledge, and commits to donate the majority of his wealth to charity.
December 2010 – Gives Washington State University $26 million to build the Paul G. Allen School of Global Animal Health.
April 19, 2011 – Allen’s memoir, “Idea Man,” is released. In the book, he claims claims Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer conspired to dilute Allen’s shares in Microsoft and force him out of the company while he was recovering from cancer in 1982.
August 2013 – Allen and his band, the Underthinkers, release an album called “Everywhere at Once.”
October 2014 – Pledges $100 million to fight Ebola through his Tackle Ebola initiative.
December 9, 2014 – Allen donates $100 million to start an institute to focus on the workings of human cells as a way to battle disease. It will be called the Allen Institute for Cell Science.
March 2, 2015 – Announces he has found the wreck of the Musashi, a long-lost World War II Japanese battleship, near the Philippines.
January 2016 – An anchor chain on the Tatoosh allegedly damages an estimated 11,000 square feet of coral reef on Seven Mile Beach Park in the Caymen Islands. Allen is not on board at the time. The owners reach a settlement agreement with the government of the Caymen Islands before the end of the year.
March 23, 2016 – Founds The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group to support emerging bioscience research.
March 2017 – Named number 42 on the Forbes World’s Billionaires list, with a net worth of $19.9 billion.