“I'm sorry that we have to have a Washington presence. We thrived during our first 16 years without any of this. I never made a political visit to Washington and we had no people here. It wasn't on our radar screen. We were just making great software.”

American entrepreneur and philanthropist of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Gates co-founded Microsoft and became one of the world’s most influential figures in technology and business. He is known for his visionary leadership in software development and his later work through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, focusing on global health, education, and poverty alleviation.