Bill Gates must be America's best-known billionaire, as well as the richest. His name is rarely out of the headlines, most recently thanks to his philanthropic deeds rather than his heritage as
Gates' high school friend and co-founder of the world's largest software maker Paul Allen has traditionally taken up far fewer column inches in the press. The 61-year-old billionaire often described as "Microsoft's other mogul" wouldn't have it any other way.
With his NFL team the Seattle Seahawks headed to the Super Bowl, it's Allen's turn in the limelight. Here's your primer on the very private polymath who'll be cheering from the owner's box this Sunday.
1. Like Gates, Paul Allen is a college drop-out. He attended Washington State University for two years before leaving to become a programmer. That decision clearly hasn't hindered his success: Allen has a net worth of $15.8 billion per the most recent Forbes 400 rich list, making him the 26th wealthiest person in America.
2. The Seattle Seahawks are one of three teams under Allen's ownership. He purchased the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers in 1988 and owns a minority stake in the Seattle Sounders FC soccer team.
3. Aside from sports, Allen's passions include aviation. He funded SpaceShip-One, the first private aircraft to successfully put a civilian in suborbital space, earning him and designer Burt Rutan the Ansari X-Prize in 2004. Now, his Stratolaunch Systems is aiming for a 2016 test flight of what would be the world's largest airplane, one designed to launch satellites from mid-air into low-earth orbit.
His interest in flight isn't just focused on the future. He's painstakingly overseen the collection and curation of perfectly preserved WWII planes, all restored to working order and on show at his Flying Heritage Collection in Everett, Wash. He invited Forbes' sister publication ForbesLife for a tour in 2013. You can check out my interview with Allen and photos of his incredible collection here.
4. Allen's dedication to preserving history doesn't end with airplanes. He funds the EMP Museum, a collection of contemporary pop culture artifacts in the shadow of the Space Needle in his home city of Seattle.
A 15-minute drive away is his Living Computer Museum, showcasing vintage computers, many the size of small cars and restored so they hum and spurt out warm air as they would've in the 1960s. Allen allowed Forbes to tag along for a reunion of early Microsoft employees at the Living Computer Museum in 2013. One of many guests of honor? His lifelong buddy Bill Gates. The two reenacted an iconic photo from 1981, when they were both still boy wonders.
5. Allen is one multi-talented mogul. Last summer he and his band the Underthinkers released their debut blues-rock album, Everywhere At Once. The Microsoft billionaire plays a mean electric guitar, with accompaniment from friends like Joe Walsh of the Eagles and Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders. He's also an Emmy winner: his Vulcan Productions film company won the award for Rx for Survival–A Global Health Challenge. His 2011 memoir Idea Man was a New York Times bestseller.
6. Computer programming won't be Allen's sole scientific legacy. To date, he's poured over $500 million into the Allen Institute for Brain Science. His goal, as my colleague Matthew Herper masterfully explained in a 2012 Forbes magazine story: to reverse-engineer the human brain.
As Herper wrote: "His first $100 million investment in the Allen Institute resulted in a gigantic computer map of how genes work in the brains of mice, a tool that other scientists have used to pinpoint genes that may play a role in multiple sclerosis, memory and eating disorders in people. Another $100 million went to creating a similar map of the human brain, already resulting in new theories about how the brain works, as well as maps of the developing mouse brain and mouse spinal cord. These have become essential tools for neuroscientists everywhere."
7. His family's influence on his life's trajectory is indelible. His interest in computers began in the stacks of the University of Washington library, where his late father Kenneth was associate director. Seven-year-old Allen would pull out books under his father's supervision and read for hours.
"I was trying to understand how things worked–how things were put together, everything from airplane engines to rockets and nuclear power plants," he told me last year. He's since endowed the library, now named after his late parents.
His interest in the human brain was partly stoked by his own late mother Faye Allen's struggles with Alzheimer's disease. “You see their personality, everything that makes them human, slowly slipping away, and there is nothing you can do about it," he told Forbes in 2012, shortly after she passed away.
If you look closely at your television during Sunday's game, you may see a large turquoise and silver ring gleaming from Allen's right hand. It belonged to his father and he rarely takes it off.
8. He's giving his money away. Allen was one of the first billionaires to join friends Bill Gates and Warren Buffett's Giving Pledge back in 2010. His philanthropy to date totals more than $1.5 billion; he's vowed to leave the majority of his estate to charitable deeds. You can read the letter he sent Gates and Buffett when he joined in their ambitious pledge here.
9. Allen's a survivor. He beat Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1982, leaving Microsoft in the process. In 2009, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and underwent chemotherapy. Said his sister and business partner Jody Allen in a statement at the time: "For those who know Paul's story, you know he beat Hodgkin's a little more than 25 years ago, and he is optimistic he can beat this, too." So far, so good.
10. He likes his toys. And why shouldn't he? Every programming genius turned philanthropic renaissance man deserves a little down time. His 400 foot super-yacht, the Octopus, must be seen to be believed (ditto its two on-board helicopters and 10-man submarine). Allen's Mercer Island, Wash. home is also a playground, and includes a basketball court and indoor pool with waterslide. He took 60 Minutes' Lesley Stahl on a rare tour in 2011. Check out the video here.
