MICHAEL DELL-FOUNDER,CHAIRMAN AND CEO OF DELL COMPUTERS

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

Michael Dell was born to a well-off, Texan Jewish family, on February 23, 1965. The son of an orthodontist and a stockbroker, Dell attended Herod Elementary School in Houston, Texas. In a bid to enter business early, he applied to take a high school equivalency exam at age eight. In his early teens, he invested his earnings from part-time jobs in stocks and precious metals.

At age 15, after playing with computers at Radio Shack, he got his first computer, an Apple II, which he promptly disassembled to see how it worked. Dell attended Memorial High School in Houston, selling subscriptions to the Houston Post in the summer. , Dell observed that newlyweds and people moving into new homes were most likely to buy a subscription. He targeted this demographic group by collecting names from marriage and mortgage applications. Dell earned $18,000 that year, exceeding the annual income of his history and economics teacher.

CAREER While a pre-med student at the University of Texas at Austin, Dell started an informal business upgrading computers. He then applied for a vendor license to bid on contracts for the State of Texas, winning bids by not having the overhead of a computer store. In January 1984, Dell registered his company as "PC's Limited". Operating out of a condominium, the business sold between $50,000 and $80,000 in upgraded PCs, kits, and add-on components.

In May, Dell incorporated the company as "Dell Computer Corporation" and relocated it to a business center in North Austin. The venture's capitalization cost was $1,000. In 1992 at the age of 27, Dell became the youngest CEO to have his company ranked in Fortune magazine's list of the top 500 corporations. In 1996, Dell started selling computers over the Web, the same year his company launched its first servers. Dell Inc. soon reported about $1 million in sales per day from dell.com.

In the first quarter of 2001, Dell Inc. reached a world market share of 12.8 percent, passing Compaq to become the world's largest PC maker. In 1998, Dell founded MSD Capital L.P. to exclusively manage his and his family's investments. Investment activities include publicly-traded securities, private equity activities, and real estate. On March 4, 2004, Dell stepped down as CEO of Dell Inc. but stayed as chairman of the board, while Kevin B. Rollins, then president and COO, became president and CEO. On January 31, 2007, Dell returned as CEO at the request of the board, succeeding Rollins.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION AWARDS: "Entrepreneur of the Year" (at age 24) from Inc. magazine. "Top CEO in American Business" from Worth magazine. "CEO of the Year" from Financial World, Industry Week and Chief Executive magazines.

RECOGNITION: Dell serves on the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum, the executive committee of the International Business Council, the U.S. Business Council, and the governing board of the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India. He previously served as a member of the U.S. Presidents Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

WRITINGS
Dell's 1999 book, Direct from Dell: Strategies That Revolutionized an Industry, is an account of his early life, his company's founding, growth and missteps, as well as lessons learned. The book was written in collaboration with Catherine Friedman.

WEALTH AND PERSONAL LIFE WEALTH : As of 2011, Forbes estimates Dell's net worth at $14.6 billion. He is one of the richest people in the world, ranked 44.