In 1978, the coder Bill Greenberg called into a local radio show and, after correctly guessing the name of an assassinated president, won a free portrait. He used the prize to take a professional photograph of his workplace at the time: a scrappy startup called Microsoft (MSFT) that was preparing to upgrade its headquarters from New Mexico to Washington. Back then, Microsoft was still a fledging software company. Adorned with appropriately groovy attire and facial hair, its dozen founding employees had no clue that their company would become the $2.8 trillion tech powerhouse it is today.
Microsoft was founded exactly 50 years ago by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, childhood friends that initially established the company to develop software for the personal computer Altair 8800. They eventually entered the operating systems business and in 1985 unveiled the Windows interface, which was subsequently followed by pioneering releases like the Office software and Internet Explorer browser. Most of its original employees, however, left the company only a few years after its founding in the mid-1990s.
The company’s original crew did eventually reunite in 2008 to recreate their now-iconic portrait. “It does capture a moment in time and the spirit that we had there in the office,” said Allen, who passed away in 2018. “You see we’re all smiling. We’re all really having fun.”
Five decades later, here’s a look at what Microsoft’s original employees are up to today:
Bill Gates, co-founder
Bill Gates was a 20-year-old Harvard dropout when he decided to launch Microsoft alongside Allen. He helmed the company as CEO until 2000 and remained involved in its day-to-day operations until 2008. Currently the world’s 11th richest person with an estimated net worth of $107.4 billion, Gates spends most of his time these days working on at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which had donated $77.6 billion in charitable grants as of 2023.
Paul Allen, co-founder (deceased)
Paul Allen first met Gates in the ’60s when the two were attending Seattle’s Lakeside School. He served as Microsoft’s chief technologist until 1983, when he left due to health issues. Accumulating a fortune of $20.3 billion, his other ventures included investments via his Vulcan Inc holding company and the ownership of sports teams like the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. Allen also donated more than $2.6 billion to initiatives across the arts, conservation and medical research during his lifetime. He died in 2018 from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Andrea Lewis, technical writer
Hired in 1977 to write documents explaining Microsoft’s products, Andrea Lewis left the company six years later with a reported $2 million worth of stock options. She subsequently settled in Seattle, Wash. and worked as a freelance writer and journalist. In 1994, Lewis co-founded the city’s Hugo House, a nonprofit literary arts center.
Marla Wood, bookkeeper (deceased)
Marla Wood was hired as an administrative assistant and bookkeeper by Microsoft in 1976 alongside her husband, Steve Wood. The duo left the company in 1980, with Marla Wood subsequently filing a sex discrimination suit against Microsoft that was eventually settled. The couple lived in Bellevue, Wash. and had an estimated net worth of $15 million. Wood, who later worked as a volunteer, died in 2022 of complications from cancer.
Steve Wood, general manager
Steve Wood, the other half of Microsoft’s married couple, served as the company’s general manager for four years. He went on to work for Starwave and Interval Research, two other companies started by Allen, before founding the mobile messaging company Wireless Services Corporation in 1996. Wood is currently a volunteer firefighter and a partner at the tech company AirNote, according to his LinkedIn.
Bob O’Rear, chief mathematician
Hired as Microsoft’s seventh employee, Bob O'Rear—who previously worked at NASA—served as the company’s chief mathematician. In addition to working on programming languages, he helped Microsoft build a personal computer for IBM in the 1980s. O’Rear retired from the company in 1993 with a roughly $100 million net worth. He now runs a cattle ranch in Texas and serves on an advisory council for his alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, where he convinced Gates to chip in on a fundraising effort for a new computer science building.
Bob Greenberg, programmer
Greenberg, an early programmer at Microsoft, was the employee who secured the company’s now-famous 1970s portrait. He left Microsoft in 1981 and helped his family’s company Coleco launch its popular Cabbage Patch Kids toy line. Greenberg, who was worth $20 million at the turn of the century, was a startup investor as of 2008.
Marc McDonald, software designer
Marc McDonald became Microsoft’s first-ever salaried employee in 1976. He left in 1984 because it was “becoming a big company” and he wanted to try other things. Ironically, he later took a job at the software company Design Intelligence, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2000—meaning McDonald was once again working for his original employer. McDonald, who had a net worth of $1 million when he rejoined Microsoft, left for good in 2011 and, according to his LinkedIn, worked at the advertising startup PaperG until 2016.
Gordon Letwin, programmer
One of the company’s initial programmers, Gordon Letwin played a leading role in the OS/2 computer operating system developed by Microsoft and IBM. Described by Gates as both a brilliant programmer and unusual programmer, Letwin left Microsoft in 1993 and, as of 2000, had a ranch in Arizona and a net worth of $20 million.
Bob Wallace, programmer (deceased)
Bob Wallace became Microsoft’s ninth employee in 1978 when he was hired as a production manager and software engineer. He left in 1983 with Microsoft shares that were worth as much as $15 million at one point, and later formed another software company known as QuickSoft. Wallace additionally funded the Promind Foundation to explore scientific and educational efforts related to psychedelics. He died of pneumonia in 2002.
Jim Lane, project manager
Serving as Microsoft’s project manager, Jim Lane joined the startup in 1978 and notably helped it form its partnership with Intel. Staying at Microsoft until 1985, he later launched his own software company and has an estimated fortune of $20 million.
Miriam Lubow, receptionist (deceased)
Miriam Lubow isn’t pictured in Microsoft’s 1978 portrait because she was held up by a snowstorm that day. But the company’s office administrator was a key member of the company’s initial team, affectionally referred to as “Mama” by her coworkers. While she didn’t join the rest of Microsoft during the company’s initial move to Washington, Lubow rejoined the team in 1981 and worked there for an additional ten years. She also reportedly sold off her company shares early, as her husband didn’t believe in the promise of computers at the time. Lubow died of liver cancer in 2008.