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Photo Credit: The Economic Club of Washington, D.C./Joshua Roberts

Bill Gates

Chairman, Microsoft Corporation | March 08, 2011
Bill Gates reflects on family, fortune, and philanthropy.

A record-setting 620 members and guests attended the Economic Club's March dinner event to hear a dialogue between Bill Gates, co-founder and Chairman of Microsoft and current co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Club President David M. Rubenstein. President Rubenstein led Mr. Gates in a wide-ranging discussion that covered much of Mr. Gates' phenomenal career, including his earliest days of launching Microsoft from his dorm room at Harvard to his current leadership of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Mr. Gates talked extensively of the foundation's goal of reducing global infant mortality by more than half by eradicating infectious diseases and improving the education system in the United States.

He also discussed the impact a wealthy world would have on the U.S. economy. He said that global wealth is "not a zero-sum game" and that "a wealthy world is a great thing for the United States." Mr. Gates' inspiring remarks prompted laughter from the audience at times and admiration for his remarkable achievements and dauntless reach for ever higher goals.

To view additional highlights and excerpts from the event, please click here.