Steven Anthony 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. In 1977, he graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and economics.

While in college, Ballmer managed the football team, worked on the Harvard Crimson newspaper as well as the university literary magazine, and lived down the hall from fellow sophomore Bill Gates.

In 1980, he graduated the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

On June 1980 he joined Microsoft, where he was hired directly by Bill Gates, and became Microsoft's 24th employee.

Initially he earned 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 and nowadays he has a net income of $11 billion, that makes him the 43rd richest person in the world, according to Forbes Magazine.

In January 2000, he was officially named chief executive officer. As CEO he handled company finances, however Gates still retained control of the "technological vision."

His leadership and passion have become hallmarks of his tenure at the company. Very famous are his performances during employees meeting.

He married Connie Snyder, who was on Microsoft's PR team at the Waggener Group in the '80s, in 1990 and they have three children.