{"id":3129,"date":"2025-04-04T12:51:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T12:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/04\/microsoft-turns-50-where-are-its-12-founding-employees-today\/"},"modified":"2025-04-04T12:51:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T12:51:20","slug":"microsoft-turns-50-where-are-its-12-founding-employees-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/04\/microsoft-turns-50-where-are-its-12-founding-employees-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Turns 50: Where Are Its 12 Founding Employees Today?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Front row (left to right): \u00a0Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood, and Paul Allen. Middle row: Bob O\u2019Rear, Bob Greenberg, Marc McDonald, and Gordon Letwin. Back row: Steve Wood, Bob Wallace, and Jim Lane. Not pictured: Miriam Lubow. Courtesy Microsoft<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1978, the coder Bill Greenberg called into a local radio show and, after correctly guessing the name of an assassinated president, won a free portrait. He used the prize to take a professional photograph of his workplace at the time: a scrappy startup called Microsoft (MSFT)<\/a> that was preparing to upgrade its headquarters from New Mexico to Washington. Back then, Microsoft was still a fledging software company. Adorned with appropriately groovy attire and facial hair, its dozen founding employees had no clue that their company would become the $2.8 trillion tech powerhouse it is today.<\/p>\n

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Microsoft was founded exactly 50 years ago by Bill Gates<\/a> and Paul Allen<\/a>, childhood friends that initially established the company to develop software for the personal computer Altair 8800. They eventually entered the operating systems business and in 1985 unveiled the Windows interface, which was subsequently followed by pioneering releases like the Office software and Internet Explorer browser. Most of its original employees, however, left the company only a few years after its founding in the mid-1990s.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s original crew did eventually reunite in 2008 to recreate their now-iconic portrait. \u201cIt does capture a moment in time and the spirit that we had there in the office<\/a>,\u201d said Allen, who passed away in 2018. \u201cYou see we\u2019re all smiling. We\u2019re all really having fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five decades later, here\u2019s a look at what Microsoft\u2019s original employees are up to today:<\/p>\n

Bill Gates, co-founder<\/h3>\n

Bill Gates was a 20-year-old Harvard dropout when he decided to launch Microsoft alongside Allen. He helmed the company as CEO until 2000 and remained involved in its day-to-day operations until 2008. Currently the world\u2019s 11th richest person with an estimated net worth of $107.4 billion<\/a>, Gates spends most of his time these days working on at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation<\/a>, which had donated $77.6 billion in charitable grants as of 2023.<\/p>\n

Paul Allen, co-founder (deceased)<\/h3>\n

Paul Allen first met Gates in the \u201960s when the two were attending Seattle\u2019s Lakeside School. He served as Microsoft\u2019s chief technologist until 1983, when he left due to health issues. Accumulating a fortune of $20.3 billion<\/a>, his other ventures included investments via his Vulcan Inc holding company and the ownership of sports teams like the NFL\u2019s Seattle Seahawks and NBA\u2019s Portland Trail Blazers. Allen also donated more than $2.6 billion to initiatives across the arts, conservation and medical research during his lifetime. He died in 2018 from complications of non-Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma.<\/p>\n

Andrea Lewis, technical writer<\/h3>\n

Hired in 1977 to write documents explaining Microsoft\u2019s products, Andrea Lewis<\/a> left the company six years later with a reported $2 million worth of stock options<\/a>. She subsequently settled in Seattle, Wash. and worked as a freelance writer and journalist. In 1994, Lewis co-founded the city\u2019s Hugo House, a nonprofit literary arts center.<\/p>\n

Marla Wood, bookkeeper (deceased)<\/h3>\n

Marla Wood<\/a> was hired as an administrative assistant and bookkeeper by Microsoft in 1976 alongside her husband, Steve Wood<\/a>. The duo left the company in 1980, with Marla Wood subsequently filing a sex discrimination suit against Microsoft that was eventually settled. The couple lived in Bellevue, Wash. and had an estimated net worth of $15 million<\/a>. Wood, who later worked as a volunteer, died in 2022 of complications from cancer.<\/p>\n

Steve Wood, general manager<\/h3>\n

Steve Wood, the other half of Microsoft\u2019s married couple, served as the company\u2019s general manager for four years. He went on to work for Starwave and Interval Research, two other companies started by Allen, before founding the mobile messaging company Wireless Services Corporation in 1996. Wood is currently a volunteer firefighter and a partner at the tech company AirNote, according to his LinkedIn.<\/p>\n

Bob O\u2019Rear, chief mathematician<\/h3>\n

Hired as Microsoft\u2019s seventh employee, Bob O’Rear<\/a>\u2014who previously worked at NASA\u2014served as the company\u2019s chief mathematician. In addition to working on programming languages, he helped Microsoft build a personal computer for IBM in the 1980s. O\u2019Rear retired from the company in 1993 with a roughly $100 million net worth<\/a>. He now runs a cattle ranch in Texas and serves on an advisory council for his alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, where he convinced Gates to chip in on a fundraising effort for a new computer science building.<\/p>\n

Bob Greenberg, programmer<\/h3>\n

Greenberg, an early programmer at Microsoft, was the employee who secured the company\u2019s now-famous 1970s portrait. He left Microsoft in 1981 and helped his family\u2019s company Coleco launch its popular Cabbage Patch Kids toy line. Greenberg, who was worth $20 million at the turn of the century<\/a>, was a startup investor as of 2008.<\/p>\n

Marc McDonald, software designer<\/h3>\n

Marc McDonald<\/a> became Microsoft\u2019s first-ever salaried employee in 1976. He left in 1984 because it was \u201cbecoming a big company<\/a>\u201d and he wanted to try other things. Ironically, he later took a job at the software company Design Intelligence, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2000\u2014meaning McDonald was once again working for his original employer. McDonald, who had a net worth of $1 million<\/a> when he rejoined Microsoft, left for good in 2011 and, according to his LinkedIn, worked at the advertising startup PaperG until 2016.<\/p>\n

Gordon Letwin, programmer<\/h3>\n

One of the company\u2019s initial programmers, Gordon Letwin<\/a> played a leading role in the OS\/2 computer operating system developed by Microsoft and IBM. Described by Gates as both a brilliant programmer and unusual programmer<\/a>, Letwin left Microsoft in 1993 and, as of 2000, had a ranch in Arizona and a net worth of $20 million.<\/p>\n

Bob Wallace, programmer (deceased)<\/h3>\n

Bob Wallace<\/a> became Microsoft\u2019s ninth employee in 1978 when he was hired as a production manager and software engineer. He left in 1983 with Microsoft shares that were worth as much as $15 million at one point<\/a>, and later formed another software company known as QuickSoft. Wallace additionally funded the Promind Foundation to explore scientific and educational efforts related to psychedelics. He died of pneumonia in 2002.<\/p>\n

Jim Lane, project manager<\/h3>\n

Serving as Microsoft\u2019s project manager, Jim Lane<\/a> joined the startup in 1978 and notably helped it form its partnership with Intel. Staying at Microsoft until 1985, he later launched his own software company and has an estimated fortune of $20 million.<\/p>\n

Miriam Lubow, receptionist (deceased)<\/h3>\n

Miriam Lubow<\/a> isn\u2019t pictured in Microsoft\u2019s 1978 portrait because she was held up by a snowstorm that day. But the company\u2019s office administrator was a key member of the company\u2019s initial team, affectionally referred to as \u201cMama\u201d by her coworkers. While she didn\u2019t join the rest of Microsoft during the company\u2019s initial move to Washington, Lubow rejoined the team in 1981 and worked there for an additional ten years. She also reportedly sold off her company shares early<\/a>, as her husband didn\u2019t believe in the promise of computers at the time. Lubow died of liver cancer in 2008.<\/p>\n

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