Bill had something much more important that tax breaks or even his studying at an Ivy League University. His little-known back story from a New York Times report which said that it was Gates’ mother, Mary, who convinced IBM to hire Microsoft to build an operating system for its computers. Mary was the first woman president of United Way back in the 1980s and it was her position as the leader of the board which helped Microsoft land such a big customer when it was just starting out.John Opel, the then chairman of IBM, happened to be a fellow-committee member of the same board and Mary managed to convince him to give Microsoft a chance.
Bill had something much more important that tax breaks or even his studying at an Ivy League University. His little-known back story from a New York Times report which said that it was Gates’ mother, Mary, who convinced IBM to hire Microsoft to build an operating system for its computers. Mary was the first woman president of United Way back in the 1980s and it was her position as the leader of the board which helped Microsoft land such a big customer when it was just starting out.John Opel, the then chairman of IBM, happened to be a fellow-committee member of the same board and Mary managed to convince him to give Microsoft a chance.