Friday Fun: Bill Gates Retires Today

Steve Sires, who has been impersonating Bill Gates for years under the name Bogus Bill, may need to find a new gig because today marks the last day Bill Gates will work as a full-time employee of the company he co-founded 33 years ago. [Financial Times Timeline: Bill Gates at the Helm of Microsoft (free registration required); NPR Timeline: From Geek to Gazillionaire to Do-Gooder; official biography on Microsoft's website] Following an announcement made on June 15, 2006, Gates will remain Microsoft's chairman but the company will be run by an executive team led by CEO Steve Ballmer, chief software architect Ray Ozzie, and chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie. [Transcript of Financial Times interview with Steve Ballmer on Microsoft's post-Gates era].

Gates, only 52, will be focusing on his philanthropic efforts, giving away his (and Warren Buffett's) fortune through his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Foundation has already donated billions of dollars to fund medical research in AIDs, malaria, and other diseases; minority college scholarships; literacy efforts; and additional causes including the Global Libraries Initiative which partners with countries emerging from poverty to help public libraries provide free access to computers connected to the Internet and training in how to use them.

Here's two hilarious retirement-related video clips:

Bill Gates Retirement Video on David Letterman Show (Aired two years ago after the announcement of Gates' retirement plans)

Bill Gates' Last Day (Video clip aired during Gates' Keynote Address at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show, featuring cameos by Brian Williams, Steve Ballmer, Matthew McConaughey, Jay-Z, Bono, Steven Spielberg, George Clooney, Jon Stewart, and others)

Gates was featured in the 1996 PBS documentary, Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires. Link to YouTube clips. [JH]