Founder of the Dell Foundation
Michael Dell is head of one of the world's largest computer companies and one of the world's richest men. Using his wealth the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation has given over $1 billion in less than twenty years.
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Foundation Guide
Born Entrepreneur

Michael Dell was born in Houston, Texas. His mother was a stockbroker and father an orthodontist. Michael was ever anxious to enter the world of business and he took his GED, or high school equivalency exam at the age of eight. Throughout his teens, Michael worked several part-time jobs, investing his earnings in stocks. He was bitten by the technology bug early and despite his growing interest in business, he was fascinated by computers and how they worked. Dell is the Founder, CEO and Chairman of Dell Technologies.

An Early Start in the Computer Industry

Though Dell’s early start into the world of business netted him a good yearly salary, he started his college career as a pre-med student at the University of Texas. During his years at the university, he started a business, developing and then selling upgrade kits for his fellow student’s personal computers. He applied for a vendor license that allowed him to bid on state contracts for computer upgrades which was incredibly successful. Convinced that being able to sell computers directly to the public would be far more effective that the current reseller and indirect sales model, Dell started his first company in 1984: PC’s Limited. Focusing on computer upgrade kits, Dell incorporated the company in May 1984 as the Dell Computer Corporation

Dell Incorporated

By 1992, at the age of 27, Dell was the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and by 1996 the company started selling computers on the World Wide Web. The company had reported sales of $1 million per day and by 2001, had a reported global market share of 13% and the title of the World’s Largest PC Maker. In 1998 Dell founded MSD Capital L.P. which was a company that controlled the family investments and which currently employs over 80 people in the US and the UK. In 2004, Michael Dell stepped down as CEO but remained Chairman of the Board of Dell Inc. In 2016, Dell announced the acquisition of EMC Corporation for a record $67 billion, making it the largest tech-acquisition in history.