Steve Ballmer, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft was born on 24th March 1956.He grew up in Michigan. His father was a manager of Ford Motor Co. It has been reported that Ballmer has an IQ of over 135. He is a bachelor of mathematics and economics from Harvard University in the year 1977. In college days, Ballmer managed the football team, worked on the Harvard Crimson newspaper and the university literary magazine, and lived down the hall from fellow sophomore Bill Gates.
After college, he joined Procter & Gamble Co. as an assistant product manager and worked for two years, later he joined Stanford University Graduate School of Business. In 1980 he dropped out of college and joined Microsoft as its 24th employee. And he is the first business manager of Microsoft hired by Gates. Ballmer’s leadership and passion have led him to various positions at the company.
From 1980-2000 he headed several divisions in Microsoft including “Operating Systems Development”, “Operations”, and “Sales and Support.” In the year 2000, he was officially named chief executive officer of Microsoft. As CEO he took full management responsibility for the company to restructure the way Microsoft manages finance, sales, product development, marketing, even strategic planning.
Ballmer started a new mission named “Realizing Potential” to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential. For the first time, Microsoft’s mission is to improve the way the company handles relationships with customers and others in the technology industry. He replaced Microsoft’s employee stock options program in 2003.