“I grew up around books. When I first held the book and it was a substantive, tangible thing, and I thought of all the work that went into it, not just my work but everybody else's and the research and so forth, there's a sense of really have done something worthwhile.”

American businessman, computer programmer, and investor

Paul Gardner Allen was an American businessman, computer programmer, and investor. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation with Bill Gates in 1975 and became a major figure in the rise of personal computing. His work is tied to the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. Forbes ranked him among the richest people in American history, and at the time of his death in October 2018, his estimated net worth was $20.3 billion.