14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft Chairman and Co-Founder Bill Gates may be on the top of the world, and certainly at the top of the world's 946 billionaires, with an estimated fortune of $56 billion but he has always been regarded as a Harvard drop-out. And while Gates has announced back in 2006 that he will transition out of his current day-to-day role with Microsoft by July 2008, other priorities have come into play.
The most important of them are Gates' philanthropic endeavors in Africa and America, but also around the world. Through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates will focus his time and efforts on philanthropy after he will leave the company he founded 31 years ago. Currently, following a donation from the world's second most wealthy man, Warren Buffett, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has the largest capital in the world in its field.
But there is also another thing that had been missing from Bill Gates' life all these years he labored to become the world's wealthiest man. And that is a Harvard degree. But this will no longer be the case as Gates, after 32 years since he left the university, will return to Harvard to get his degree.
Gates' approximative alma mater has announced that the Microsoft Chairman will take the center stage at the Harvard University's 356th commencement ceremonies on June 7, 2007. Additionally, Bill Gates will be presented with an honorary Harvard degree.
"I am very pleased that the Harvard community will have the opportunity to hear from Bill Gates on June 7," said Paul Finnegan, president of the Harvard Alumni Association. "His contributions to the world of business and technology, and the great example he has set through his far-reaching philanthropy, will rightfully put him on center stage in Harvard Yard. I look forward to greeting him in June."