Michael Dell

Michael Dell, born in February 1965, is the chairman and chief executive officer of Dell, the company he founded in 1984 with $1,000 and an unprecedented idea - to sell computer systems directly to customers. The company employs approximately 44,300 team members worldwide and reported revenues of $39.7 billion for the past four quarters.

Dell is a premier provider of computing products and services to the world's largest corporations, including many of the companies on the Fortune 500. With the addition of Dell to this list in 1992, Mr. Dell became the youngest CEO of a company ever to earn a ranking on the Fortune 500 and is now the longest-tenured CEO in the computer industry. The company currently ranks No. 4 on Fortune magazine's "Most Admired" lists, both globally and in the United States, and in 2003 was named among the top 10 most trusted and respected companies by a Wall Street Journal poll.

Mr. Dell has been honored many times for his visionary leadership, including in 2003 being named one of the top-ten most powerful people in business by Fortune magazine, the fourth most respected world leader by the Financial Times and the best CEO in the I/T hardware industry by Institutional Investor magazine. In 2001, he was named chief executive of the year by Chief Executive magazine.

Mr. Dell attended The University of Texas at Austin. In 1999, he wrote the best-selling book, Direct From Dell: Strategies That Revolutionized an Industry, his story of the rise of the company and the strategies he has refined that apply to all businesses. Mr. Dell is an IT governor of the World Economic Forum, serves on the executive committee of the International Business Council and is a member of the U.S. Business Council. He is also a member of the Computer Systems Policy Project, serves on the U.S. President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and sits on the governing board of the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India.