Michael S. Dell

Michael Dell is an American business magnate and author. He is the founder and CEO of Dell, Inc., one of the world’s leading sellers of personal computers (PCs) and laptops. He is ranked as the 41st richest person in the world on 2012 Forbes Billionaires list, with a net worth of US$15.9 billion as of March 2012. In 2011, his 243.35 million shares of Dell stock were worth $3.5 billion, giving him 12% ownership of the company.

While freshman pre-med student at the University of Texas at Austin, Dell started an informal business putting together and selling upgrade kits for personal 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 banked on his conviction that the potential cost savings of a manufacturer selling PCs directly had enormous advantages over the conventional indirect retail channel. 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 company employed a few order takers, a few more people to fulfill them and a manufacturing staff consisting of three guys with screwdrivers sitting at six-foot tables. 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. The metric marked the first time the rankings had shifted over the previous seven years. The company's combined shipments of desktops, notebooks and servers grew 34.3 percent worldwide and 30.7 percent in the United States at a time when competitors' sales were shrinking.

On March 4, 2004, Dell stepped down as CEO of Dell Inc. but stayed as chairman of the board, while Kevin 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.

Accolades for Dell include "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.

In 1999, Michael and Susan Dell established the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, which focuses on children’s causes. By 2010, the foundation had committed more than $530 million to assist nonprofit organizations serving urban communities in the United States and India. The foundation has also provided $65 million in grants to three health-related organizations associated with the University of Texas: the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Advancement of Healthy Living, the Dell Pediatric Research Institute, and the Dell Children’s Medical Center, as well as funding for a new computer science building on the University of Texas campus.

In 2004, Susan and Michael Dell were among 53 contributors of $250,000 (the maximum legal donation) to the second inauguration of President George W. Bush.

In the April 2011 issue of Mother Jones, a timeline of Michael Dell's life is included in the article American Magnate: “Michael Dell: How a homegrown geek outsourced, downsized, and tax-breaked his way to the top.” The article juxtaposes the CEO's spending on luxurious homes and private jet travel with his pursuit of tax breaks and tax holidays and Dell Computer's eventual offshoring of jobs overseas after receiving the incentives for setting up shop locally.