Steven A. Ballmer

Age: 51

WHAT HE DOES
Ballmer is C.E.O. of Microsoft, the world’s largest software company.

WHAT HE’S KNOWN FOR
Ballmer is among Microsoft’s most impassioned supporters, proud of his company and more than willing to show it. Ballmer has bragged to the press that his kids use only Microsoft products—no Google, no iPods.

Since joining the company in 1980, Ballmer has made his way around Microsoft, heading up major divisions including operations, operating-systems development, and sales and support. He was tapped as president in 1998 when the company faced a landmark antitrust lawsuit, and he took the C.E.O. post in 2000, assuming full management responsibility when co-founder and best friend Bill Gates named himself chairman and chief software architect.

As C.E.O., Ballmer has shepherded Microsoft through the settlement of its antitrust case, agreeing in 2001 to a set of rules designed to curb the company’s monopolistic business practices.

He has also managed a slew of product launches in the past seven years, including the release of the Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems, and the debut of the Xbox, Microsoft’s foray into the multibillion-dollar videogaming business.
 
Ballmer has succeeded in leading Microsoft to record sales and profits, with the company posting net income of $12.3 billion on revenue of more than $40 billion at the end of the 2006 fiscal year. Under his watch in 2004, Microsoft announced the largest onetime corporate dividend in history, shelling out $32 billion to shareholders.

Ballmer’s management style is said to be as fierce as his loyalty. After Google lured away an engineer, Ballmer reportedly hurled a chair across his office and vowed to bury Google. Other outbursts and antics have gained notoriety after being captured on video and spread across the Web. In one clip, originally dubbed “Monkeyboy,” Ballmer begins a company presentation by jumping and dancing around the stage, yelling to the tune of Gloria Estefan’s “Get on Your Feet” and stopping after 45 seconds to shout, “I love this company…yes!”

WHERE HE’S FROM
Born in March 1956, Ballmer grew up in the suburbs of Detroit. He attended Harvard University, where, as a sophomore, he lived down the hall from Gates. Ballmer graduated with a degree in mathematics and economics and proceeded to business school at Stanford University but left without earning a degree. After two years as an assistant product manager at Procter & Gamble, he joined Microsoft, when the company had fewer than 30 employees.

WHERE HE’S GOING
As Microsoft’s biggest cheerleader, Ballmer will have his hands full in the coming years, especially with Gates stepping out of the picture in July 2008 to focus full-time on his philanthropic efforts.

Ballmer faces a host of competitors, among them Google, Apple, Sony, and Nintendo. His future will depend on the success of Microsoft’s newest releases: the much-delayed Windows Vista operating system and the Zune portable media player, Microsoft’s attempt at an iPod slayer. —Clancy Nolan