Steven Ballmer is one of the most renowned businessmen in America commonly known for his role as Microsoft’s chief executive officer. He served for 14 years in the company and according to reports, he was the thirtieth worker to be hired by Microsoft. After he finished serving the company, Steve bought the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team and currently, he spends most of his time building and growing his team. He also engages in philanthropic activities together with his wife.
Early life
Steve was born on the 24th of March 1956 in Detroit to Beatrice Dworkin and Frederic Henry Ballmer. His father was an excellent manager at Ford automotive company and so Steve lead a comfortable life as a young child. He attended Detroit Country Day School located in Beverly Hills, and later joined Lawrence Technological University and graduated as valedictorian from Detroit Country Day School. Ballmer decided to further his studies at Harvard University and luckily got the chance of managing the Havard Crimson football team. It was during his years at Harvard that he met the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates. He later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts as a certified economist and mathematician. While living in Hollywood, he tried to write scripts and screenplays but later quit and continued to further his education at Stanford Business School.
Career
Even though Steve has few employers in his curriculum vitae, he has many years of experience in lofty jobs. Years after graduating, he was fortunate to find the right work for him at Microsoft company. Another lofty job that he had was that of an Assistant Manager at Procter & Gamble. He also worked at General Electric under the tutelage and mentorship of the company’s CEO, Jeff Immelt.
In all the places that he worked, Microsoft proved to be where he found his home. This can be elucidated by the fact that he was extremely instrumental in reorganizing the company, especially in its early stages. He took part in stock creation and was offered 8 percent of the Company’s holdings. Steve patiently held his stocks for quite some time and later sold them as shares for 39 million dollars in 2003. This however led to a reduction in his company’s ownership to nearly 4.5 % and has still retained this percentage up to this day.
Head of operating system vice president and sales
Steven Ballmer will be remembered for his remarkable contributions to Microsoft. During the upcoming years of Microsoft, in the 1980s, Steve led a team of developers who were responsible for the creation of one of the most popular operating systems widely known as Microsoft Windows. This operating system has managed to stand the test of time because it is still relevant and is currently used by millions of people and companies.
In 1992, Steve was assigned to lead a group of developers to work on the framework known as .net. As the Vice President, he successfully spearheaded the project and was extremely fruitful.
Chief executive officer
In the early 2000s, Steve was placed as the CEO of Microsoft only answering to the duties of his boss Bill Gates. Ballmer has mentioned severally that it was in this position that he began to fully grasp and evaluate how finances were flowing in and out of the business. He has also been saying that the CEO position immensely helped him in gaining insight into what kind of future technological advancement would be needed by the company. Under his leadership, he was able to do experimentations with different products and they later came up with Xbox, one of the best gaming products that have ever been invented.
Conclusion
Steve Ballmer is the rightful definition of an individual with a Midas touch. He has brought achievements to several companies and most importantly Microsoft company. After his retirement in 2014, it was estimated that he increased Microsoft’s yearly revenue from twenty-five billion dollars to seventy billion dollars. Certainly, it is safe to point out that Steve Ballmer is a magnate of success.
