Steve Anthony Ballmer (born March 24, 1956) is an American businessman. He has been the chief executive officer of Microsoft Corporation since January 2000. Ballmer is the second person after Roberto Goizueta to become a billionaire in U.S. dollars based on stock options received as an employee of a corporation in which he was neither a founder nor a relative of a founder. In Forbes 2008 World's Richest People ranking, Ballmer was ranked the 43rd richest person in the world, with an estimated wealth of $15 billion.

Steve Ballmer has been known to be very passionate in expressing his enthusiasm. When Microsoft celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2000, Ballmer popped out of the anniversary cake to surprise the audience. His wild screaming and dancing on stage at an employees convention was caught on a widely-circulated video known as "Steve Ballmer going crazy." A few days later at a developers' conference, a sweat-soaked Ballmer repeatedly chanted "developers" at least 14 times in front of the bemused gathering.

Family

On October 4, 2007, Ballmer was awarded honorary citizenship of Lausen, Switzerland. His father had worked in that country as a manager at Ford Motor Co in the late 1940s. In 1990 Ballmer married Connie Snyder, on Microsoft's PR team at the Waggener Group in the '80s. They have three children. Ballmer's grandfather lives in Minsk, Belarus.

Pre-Microsoft & Life History

Steve Ballmer was born March 24, 1956, to a Swiss father and a Jewish-American mother whose family came from the Eastern European city of Pinsk (today in Belarus). He grew up in Farmington Hills, Michigan. In 1973, he graduated from Detroit Country Day School, a high school, and now sits on its board of directors. In 1977, he graduated from Harvard University

Microsoft career

Ballmer joined Microsoft on June 11, 1980. , and became Microsoft's 24th employee, the first business manager hired by Gates. Fact: date=August 2008 He was initially offered a salary of $50,000 as well as a percentage of ownership of the company. When Microsoft was incorporated in 1981, Ballmer owned 8 percent of the company. He has headed several divisions within Microsoft including "Operating Systems Development", "Operations", and "Sales and Support." In January 2000, he was officially named chief executive officer. As CEO Ballmer handled company finances, however Gates still retained control of the "technological vision." In 2003, Ballmer sold 8.3% of his shareholdings, leaving him with a 4% stake in the company. The same year, Ballmer replaced Microsoft's employee stock options program, which had been instrumental in making early employees millionaires.

Viral videos

Footage featuring Ballmer's flamboyant stage appearances at Microsoft events have been widely circulated on the Internet, becoming viral videos. The most famous of these is commonly titled "Dance Monkeyboy." This video features Ballmer sprinting and hopping around while verbally screeching, screaming and making other various high pitched noises and hand gestures on a stage for about 45 seconds after being introduced at a Microsoft employee convention. Another video, captured at a developers' conference, featured a visibly sweat-drenched Ballmer chanting and shouting the word "developers" fourteen times in front of a gathering of Microsoft associates. Another video, which became a "big hit on the web" and was featured on CNN shows Ballmer ducking behind a desk to evade eggs during a speech in Budapest, Hungary