Paul Allen

Much of Paul Allen's philanthropy has been dedicated to the advancement of science and technology. The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation was established in 1986 to administer much of the giving. Allen's most famous philanthropic projects are the Experience Music Project, the Allen Brain Atlas, and SETI. Paul Allen's total philanthropy as of 2005 is estimated to be over US $800 million dollars.

The University of Washington has been a major recipient of Paul Allen's giving. In the late 1980's, Allen donated US$18 million to build a new library named after his father, Kenneth S. Allen. In 2003 US$5 million was donated to establish the Faye G. Allen (his mother) Center for Visual Arts.

Paul Allen also was the top private contributor (US$14 million) and namesake of the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering (completed in 2004). Throughout the years, Allen has contributed millions of US dollars to the University of Washington Medical School most recently, US$3.2 million for prostatitis research. Allen is also the primary developer and investor of a proposed medical research campus in the south Union Bay neighborhood adjacent to the University of Washington with investments estimated at US$400 million as of 2005.

Paul Allen was born in Seattle, Washington to Kenneth S. Allen, an associate director of the University of Washington libraries and Faye G. Allen. Allen attended Lakeside School, a prestigious private school in Seattle and befriended Bill Gates, two years his junior but shared a common enthusiasm for computers. Together they monopolized the use of Lakeside school's single minicomputer but in need of more computing power, Allen and Gates snuck into the University of Washington computer labs. They were caught but struck an agreement with lab administrators by providing free computer help to students. After graduation, Allen attended Washington State University, though he dropped out after two years to pursue his dream of writing software commercially for the new "personal computers". He later convinced Bill Gates to drop out of Harvard College to found Microsoft.

Paul Gardner Allen (born January 21, 1953) is an entrepreneur who established himself by co-founding Microsoft Corporation with Bill Gates. He regularly appears on lists of the richest people in the world; as of 2005 he is ranked by Forbes magazine as the seventh richest, worth an estimated $21 billion, of which $5 billion is in Microsoft stock. His investment vehicle, Vulcan Ventures, also holds large stakes in Charter Communications and Dreamworks SKG. He was recently invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).