Steve Ballmer, best known for his role as CEO of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014, became a multi-billionaire and later purchased the Los Angeles Clippers NBA team in 2014.
Ballmer graduated from Harvard with degrees in economics and applied mathematics. He briefly attended Stanford’s graduate business school before leaving to join Microsoft.
In the 1999 TV movie Pirates of Silicon Valley, Ballmer was portrayed by actor John DiMaggio as a central character.
Raised in Michigan, Ballmer is the son of a Swiss automotive executive and a Jewish mother with Belarusian roots. He married Connie Snyder in 1990, and they have three sons.
Ballmer and Bill Gates were Harvard classmates and both competed in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, where Ballmer ranked higher than Gates.
