WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
What Happened To The People In Microsoft's Iconic 1978 Company Photo?
It's one of the most iconic photos in American business.
A ragtag group of bearded weirdos assembled for a family portrait in Albuquerque.
Usually, there's a question above the photo: "Would you have invested?"
It's a trick question. You're supposed to answer no – because well, look at those people – but then you learn it's a company portrait of Microsoft from 1978.
It was taken just before the then startup left Albuquerque for Seattle. (Microsoft couldn't find anyone willing to move to New Mexico.) Early employee Bob Greenberg, pictured in the middle, won the free portrait after calling in a radio show and guessing the name of an assassinated president. The gang reluctantly gathered together in some of their finest attire, and American business legend was made. We all know what happened with the two guys in the bottom left and bottom right corners -- Bill Gates, and Paul Allen.
But what about the rest? The question pop up on Hacker News recently, and they decided to find out.
It's a trick question. You're supposed to answer no – because well, look at those people – but then you learn it's a company portrait of Microsoft from 1978.
It was taken just before the then startup left Albuquerque for Seattle. (Microsoft couldn't find anyone willing to move to New Mexico.) Early employee Bob Greenberg, pictured in the middle, won the free portrait after calling in a radio show and guessing the name of an assassinated president. The gang reluctantly gathered together in some of their finest attire, and American business legend was made. We all know what happened with the two guys in the bottom left and bottom right corners -- Bill Gates, and Paul Allen.
But what about the rest? The question pop up on Hacker News recently, and they decided to find out.
We all know what happened with this
guy. Bill Gates founded and built Microsoft from nothing into the most
valuable technology company in the world. Along the way he amassed a
fortune, which he's now giving away to all sorts of good causes.
Andrea Lewis was the only person at
the company that was from Albuquerque. She was a technical writer for
Microsoft, which meant she wrote documents explaining Microsoft's
software. She left Microsoft in 1983, eventually becoming a freelance
journalist and fiction writer. Thanks in part to her Microsoft options,
her net worth was estimated at $2 million by the AP.
Maria Wood was a book keeper for
Microsoft, and married to another one of the early Microsofties in the
picture. She left the company just two years later, suing it for sexual
discrimination. Microsoft settled the case. After that, it doesn't look
like she did much else. She raised her children and became a volunteer.
After Bill Gates, Paul Allen is the
most famous guy in the group. Allen, the other Microsoft cofounder, is
the 37th richest person in the world according to Forbes. He's the owner
of the Portland Trailblazers, the Seattle Seahawks, one of the biggest
yachts in the world, and much more.
Bob O'Rear was one of the oldest
employees at Microsoft. He was at NASA in Mission Control when we landed
on the moon. At Microsoft he was a chief mathematician, and is credited
with reworking code in DOS, and getting it onto IBM PCs. He left the
company in 1983, moved back to his home state of Texas, and did some
cattle ranching. His worth is estimated at $100 million, and he sits on
the board of a few local businesses.
Bob Greenberg was the guy that won a
radio call-in contest to get the photo. He left Microsoft in 1981,
after helping the company develop a new version of BASIC. When he left
he went on to help his family's company, Coleco, develop the Cabbage
Patch Kid dolls, which became a huge hit. More recently, he's said to
have worked on golf course software.
Marc McDonald was the first salaried
employee, and when he left in 1984, it was because he didn't like how
big the company was getting. After leaving Microsoft he went to another
Paul Allen company, Asymetrix. He then went to Seattle design company
Design Intelligence, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2000. So, he
ended up back at Microsoft! According to the AP, he has said he is worth
less than $1 million.
Gordon Letwin was with the company
until 1993, the second longest run of all the employees pictured (Gates
is first). He was a programmer at Microsoft, and quit when he wanted a
break from the grind of the company. He has a ranch in Arizona, and has
donated money to some environmental causes. His worth is estimated at
$20 million or so.
Steve Wood is the husband of Maria
Wood, who eventually left Microsoft under bad circumstances. Steve left
in 1980, but worked with Paul Allen on a few companies. He founded
Wireless Services Corp., a mobile messaging company, in 1996. It's been
renamed SinglePoint, and he's now the chairman. He and his wife's net
worth is pegged at $15 million now.
Bob Wallace seems like he was one of
the most far out early Microsoft employees. He spent time and money
researching psychedelic drugs after leaving the company. He also founded
a software company called Quicksoft. He died in 2002 from pneumonia.
Jim Lane was a project manager who
left in 1985 reportedly saying, Microsoft "beat the enthusiasm out of
me." He went on to start his own software company. At Microsoft he
helped with the early partnership with Intel. (Something that's been
pretty useful for Microsoft so far.)
