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This Man's Job: Make Bill Gates RicherSecretive Money Manager Michael Larson Helped Microsoft Co-Founder's Fortune Balloon to $82 BillionINVESTMENTS THAT HELPED MAKE BILL GATES RICHERIn 2013, Mr. Gates and other buyers paid $161 million for the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco. The hotel is now valued at about $200 million, positioning Mr. Gates for a profit if he decides to sell. JOHN SUTTONInvitations to a dinner party from Bill and Melinda Gates at their mansion near Seattle in February included an unusual request: Wear pink or platinum. Spotlights installed for the occasion bathed the room in a pink glow.Mr. Gates raised his glass to toast the guest of honor, Michael Larson, who sat nearby wearing a pink button-down shirt, his favorite color. The Microsoft Corp. co-founder said Mr. Larson has his "complete trust and faith," according to people who were there."Melinda and I are free to pursue our vision of a healthier and better-educated world because of what Michael has done" for the past 20 years, Mr. Gates told about 40 dinner guests. Because of Mr. Larson, the world's richest man said, he sleeps well at night.The arrangement is simple: Mr. Larson makes money, and Mr. Gates gives it away. Since 1994, the 54-year-old Mr. Larson has managed Mr. Gates's investment empire, mostly through a firm called Cascade Investment LLC.Few people know much about Mr. Gates's assets or Mr. Larson's tactics—and the two men want to keep it that way. Real-estate investments, which range from the fancy Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Mass., to a 490-acre ranch in Wyoming once owned by William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, are often cloaked in nondescript names to make it harder to trace the deals back to Mr. Gates.Cascade's headquarters are in an unmarked building in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland. Mr. Larson is so protective of his boss that he used to be nicknamed "the Gateskeeper," says someone who worked with him. Employees who leave often sign confidentiality agreements barring them from talking about Cascade, people familiar with the matter say.Mr. Gates's net worth has swelled to about $82 billion from $5 billion since he hired the former bond-fund manager and gave him autonomy to buy and sell investments as he sees fit. In addition to Cascade, which holds most of the billionaire's personal fortune, Mr. Larson oversees the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's $41 billion endowment.Cascade doesn't publicly disclose its performance results, but people familiar with the firm say it usually churns out steady annual gains. Because of Mr. Larson's relatively conservative strategy, Cascade's losses when the financial crisis hit in 2008 were smaller than the 27% drop by the Dow Jones Industrial Average for the full year, people familiar with the results say.Since 1995, Mr. Larson has delivered a compound annual return of 11% for the Gates Foundation and two predecessors, outperforming the S&P 500 stock index by more than one percentage point.Mr. Gates, 58, would be worth about the same if he had kept all the Microsoft stock he got after starting the company in 1975. Mr. Gates owned a 45% stake when Microsoft went public in 1986. The shares are now worth about $150 billion, excluding dividends. Microsoft shares have nearly tripled in the past five years.But Mr. Gates has sold nearly $40 billion of Microsoft stock since 1994 as part of an effort to diversify his investments. The Gates Foundation also has given $30 billion to charitable causes.Messrs. Larson and Gates declined to comment on their relationship, but people who know them say it has evolved into a bond that is crucial to the billionaire's philanthropy. Mr. Larson's many profitable investments on behalf of Mr. Gates and sales of some of his Microsoft shares have increased the size of donations by Mr. Gates and his family to the Gates Foundation.That means more money can be plowed into the foundation's mission to fight disease and improve education in the developing world.Bill and Melinda Gates plan to donate 95% of their wealth to the foundation, the world's largest philanthropic organization. In addition to $28 billion from Mr. Gates, its endowment includes $12 billion in gifts from Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s Warren Buffett."They're not two buddies, for sure," says Steve Walsh, former chief executive of Legg Mason Inc.'s Western Asset Management unit, about Messrs. Gates and Larson. They rarely mingle socially, people close to them say.Mr. Walsh says he was struck by how much effort Mr. Gates put into the dinner party for Mr. Larson at the former Microsoft chief executive's 66,000-square-foot mansion on the edge of Lake Washington. The reference to platinum on the invitations was a nod to the metal's 20th-anniversary symbolism."It was almost tender—and endearing," says Mr. Walsh, who has known Mr. Larson for decades.The Wall Street Journal pieced together a snapshot of Mr. Gates's investments from interviews with more than two dozen people familiar with Cascade, securities filings that detail some holdings of the firm and real-estate records. Few of Cascade's investments have been publicly announced.The Wyoming ranch is part of a bet by Cascade on the steep rebound in real-estate prices since the financial crisis. The firm owns at least 100,000 acres of farmland in California, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana and other states—or an area seven times bigger than Manhattan.Cascade also owns more than $24 billion of shares in companies such as Canadian National Railway Co., AutoNation Inc. and Republic Services Inc. The holdings reflect Mr. Larson's value-conscious, buy-and-hold philosophy, mirroring Mr. Buffett, a close friend of Mr. Gates. Canadian National shares are up 207% in the past five years.While much of Mr. Gates's money is in stocks, Mr. Larson has plowed smaller chunks into private equity and other types of adventurous, so-called alternative assets, according to people familiar with the matter. Sizable bets on the bond markets have been reduced recently.Some investments have been duds. In 2007, Cascade and other investors bought a 13% stake in PlanetOut Inc., the publisher of Out magazine and a cruise-line operator targeting gays and lesbians. The company's shares soon sank, and it sold some assets and was acquired by another firm in 2009.Surprisingly, Mr. Gates has few technology-related investments. As of June 30, he held a 3.6% stake in Microsoft, worth about $13.9 billion based on Thursday's closing stock price.Mr. Gates makes his own tech and biotech investments, which aren't held by Cascade. He started digital-image company Corbis Corp. in 1989. Smaller investments include stakes in nuclear-reactor developer TerraPower LLC and meat-substitute maker Beyond Meat.Mr. Gates is updated on all the other investments every other month. "At the end of the day, all decisions go through Michael," says Mike Jackson, chairman and CEO of AutoNation, who considers Mr. Larson a friend. Mr. Larson is a director of the auto retailer, and Cascade owns a 14% stake in AutoNation valued at about $841 million.Mr. Gates decided to hire Mr. Larson after the Journal reported in 1993 that the entrepreneur's money manager at the time had previously been convicted of bank fraud. Mr. Gates was a close friend of the money manager and already knew about the conviction, the Journal said, but began looking for someone new after the uproar.After an extensive screening process, a recruiter invited Mr. Larson to meet Mr. Gates. The money manager had worked for a mergers-and-acquisitions firm and run bond funds for Putnam Investments, now a subsidiary of Canadian insurer Great-West Lifeco, Inc., before striking out on his own.The two men hit it off. Mr. Gates was impressed by Mr. Larson's self-assured yet low-key personality, people familiar with Mr. Gates's thinking say.After taking the job, Mr. Larson decided to go "off the radar," says Roger McNamee, a co-founder of Elevation Partners, a Silicon Valley firm that was an early investor in Facebook Inc. He says Mr. Larson believed a low profile was the best way to approach such high-profile investing following the bad publicity about his predecessor.Mr. Larson farms out more than $10 billion in assets at any given time to roughly 25 outside money managers, partly as a way to drum up new investment ideas. The outsiders aren't told any nonpublic details about the size of Mr. Gates's portfolio or its holdings, people familiar with the matter say.A news release announcing last year's acquisition of the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco, a neoclassical gem in Nob Hill, identified only Cascade's co-investor in the $161 million purchase. A publicist for the Charles Hotel said she had no idea Mr. Gates is a co-owner of the hotel."It's an extraordinary tribute to Michael that if you think about Bill Gates and his reputation, you never hear about Cascade," Mr. McNamee says.Married with three children, Mr. Larson prefers Levi's jeans and dark pink shirts. Some current and former employees say he can be brusque and controlling, even deciding the seating chart for the investment firm's annual holiday party.James Floyd, chief investment officer at Claremont McKenna College, a liberal-arts school in California from which Mr. Larson graduated in 1980, says he is "brutally honest, but in a refreshing way. You know exactly where you stand with him." Mr. Larson advises the college's investment committee.Cascade employees are expected to be frugal. Even though Mr. Gates owns nearly half of the Four Seasons Holding Inc. luxury-hotel chain through Cascade, the investment firm's executives stay at less-expensive hotels, even when traveling on Four Seasons business.The $3.8 billion acquisition with Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal came in 2007 near the real-estate market's peak."There's a symbolic value to continually reminding their partners that Four Seasons is a financial investment, not an ego investment," says Philip Maritz, co-founder and president of hotel investment firm Maritz, Wolff & Co. He sold the Four Seasons in Houston to Cascade last year.Mr. Larson also is known as a golf nut who enjoys networking more than working on his backswing. People who know him say he puts immense value on personal relationships, cultivating them with an intensity that can feel tiring.He attends Allen & Co.'s big-name conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, with Mr. Gates.Bill and Melinda Gates also attend Mr. Larson's daylong round-table discussion held every December in Cascade's conference room. Invited high rollers from the finance and corporate worlds discuss themes and topics for the year ahead. Recent guests include Liberty Media Corp. Chairman John Malone, TPG co-founder David Bonderman andEdward Lampert, the hedge-fund manager who is CEO of Sears Holding Corp.Cascade has grown to roughly 100 employees, compared with 1,200 at the Gates Foundation. Mr. Larson likes to hire recent Claremont McKenna graduates. Employees are discouraged from using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media—and from sending email from their work accounts to outsiders who aren't business partners.In 2009, Mr. Larson dispatched a 25-year-old Cascade employee to negotiate the purchase of multimillion-dollar mansions in Jupiter Island, Fla., hoping the firm could squeeze bargains out of homeowners burned by Bernard L. Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme, people familiar with the matter say.The employee was told to say he worked for a Cascade subsidiary called Front Range Investment Holdings LLC, not Cascade or Mr. Gates, these people say. The employee nailed down the purchase of one mansion for $5 million, real-estate records show. It was on the market for $12 million in 2008.Front Range is described on the deed that recorded the purchase as a Colorado limited liability company, and other public records include an address at a post-office in Kirkland, Wash., where Cascade is based.Online real-estate firm Zillow Inc. estimates that the four-bedroom, nearly 12,000-square-foot "European villa" with a private dock is now worth $6.4 million. The mansion is for sale for about $5.3 million. Cascade is willing to walk away with a small profit.http://uds.ak.o.brightcove.com/47628783001/47628783001_4586448579001_4586439397001.mp4Sources: https://www.ft.com/content/ce87f48a-7208-11e5-9b9e-690fdae72044This Man's Job: Make Bill Gates Richer

25 MOST INSPIRING RAGS TO RICHER STORIES :-25. Andrew CarnegieThis Scottish-American industrialist started to work at a cotton mill for a 12-hour, 6-days a week job in America when he was only 13 years old after his father lost his jobs as a handweaver in Scotland. Hired later as a telegraph messenger at thePennsylvania Railroad Company, he was able to climb the corporate ladder where he used his earnings to invest in ventures that led him to build an empire in the steel industry including his large-scale philanthropic legacy.24. Oprah WinfreyBorn to unwed teenage parents in Mississippi, this media mogul wore dresses that her grandmother made out of potato sacks. After being molested, she run away at the age of 13 and became a mother at 14, but her son died in infancy. Sent to live with his father, a barber in Tennessee, she got a full scholarship in college, won a beauty pageant and was discovered by a radio station. Her empire is now worth $2.7 billion which she shares with the world through her philanthropic works.23. Maria Das Gracas Silva FosterBorn in the poverty-stricken shantytown of Morro do Adeus, Brazil to an alcoholic father, she earned extra money by collecting cans and paper to continue her studies. She broke the barriers of the corporate ladder when she was hired as an intern at Petrobras, an oil company, in 1978 and became the first female head of the department of engineering. She also became one of the world’s most influential people as the first female CEO of Petrobras.22. Sam WaltonDuring the Great Depression, Sam Walton and his family lived on a farm in Oklahoma where he milked the family cow and delivered bottles to customers to make ends meet. He joined JC Penny three days after graduating from the University of Missouri with a BA Economics degree. After WW II, with capital of $25,000 that he borrowed from his father along with the $5,000 that he saved from the army, he bought a Ben Franklin variety store which he expanded into the retailer giant Walmart and the membership-only retailer warehouse Sam’s Club.21. Chris GardnerBorn without knowing his real father, he was driven out of his home by his abusive stepfather. He enlisted in the Navy and later became a medical supplies salesman. Due to the slump in his job and with his own family to support, he became interested in stock broking after seeing a stockbroker with a Ferrari. His travails of sleeping in a subway station bathroom, being homeless, passing the licensing exam for stockbrokers, and becoming employed by Bear Sterns was documented in his memoirs, “The Pursuit of Happiness,” which became a hit movie as well.20. Ingvar KampradLiving on a farm most of his growing up years, this Swedish business magnate had always been known for being enterprising even at a young age as he bought matches in bulk and sold them individually to his neighbors. This expanded to fish, pens and Christmas decorations. He also used the cash reward that his father gave him for good grades and used this to create a mail-order business that became the retail company IKEA. Furniture became the company’s biggest seller, which made him one of the richest men in the world today having a net worth of $3 billion.19. J.K. RowlingJoanne Rowling, a native of Yate, Gloucestershire in England moved to Porto, Portugal in 1990 when her mother died. While she was already writing the Harry Potter novel even before her mother’s death, the seven-year period that followed entailed a divorce from her husband in 1993, a move to Edinburgh, Scotland and a life with a daughter living on welfare while suffering from clinical depression until she finished the first book in her famous series, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” in 1997. She was able to finish it by writing on scraps of tissue paper from the numerous cafes they visited to let her daughter sleep. With over 400 million books and the worldwide success of the Harry Potter franchise JK Rowling’s net worth is $1 billion.18. Jim CarreyJames Eugene Carrey was born in Ontario, Canada to a middle-income family where his musician father worked as an accountant. However, things got worse for his family when his father lost his job and they all had to move to Scarborough. He worked at the Titan Wheels Factory for eight hours a day while attending school, but never finished high school. While living in a camper van, he started doing stand-up routines and eventually landed a gig in the sitcom The Duck Factory. He first gained recognition in 1990 when he became one of the casts in the sketch comedy ‘In Living Colors.’ He later moved on to movies and became one of the highest paid comedians in America.17. Sheldon AdelsonThe son of a Lithuanian immigrant taxi driver, his mother ran a knitting store from their home. He grew up in a tenement where he shared a bedroom with his parents and three siblings, started selling newspapers at the age of 12, and started his candy-vending machine business at the age of 16. Though he tried his hand at various enterprises from packing hotel toiletries to mortgage brokering his biggest break came from developing a computer trade show. He purchased the Sands Hotel & Casino and later the mega-resort, The Venetian, from the profits of his ventures pegging his net worth today at $21.8 billion.16. Kirk KerkorianThe Armenian-born Kirk Kerkorian grew up at the time of the Great Depression, where he learned English on the street and dropped out of 8th grade to become an amateur boxer. He became a daredevil pilot for the Royal Air Force during WW II and delivered supplies over the Atlantic flying some of the most perilous routes. After quitting gambling in 1947, he bought some charter planes and also engaged in real estate in Las Vegas in 1962. He became the “father of the mega-resort” when he bought The Flamingo and built the stalwarts of the Las Vegas scene, The International and MGM Grand, which made him worth a few billion dollars.15. John D. RockefellerOne of six children born in Richford, New York, Rockefeller might have inherited his good business sense from his father, a traveling salesman who used all the tricks to get out of decent hard work and taught his son to always get the best deal in all things. His mom struggled to raise them and though they moved a number of times, he was able to finish school and get his first job as a bookkeeper where he earned $50 in three months. He decided to put up a firm and built an oil refinery with his friend Maurice B. Clark in 1859. He later bought out the Clark brothers’ refinery firm and renamed it Rockefeller & Andrews. He also founded the Standard Oil Company to become the world’s first billionaire and the richest person in history.14. Leonardo Del VecchioDel Vecchio was sent to an orphanage when his widowed mother could not support all five of her children. He worked in a factory that made molds for auto parts and eyeglass frames where he lost part of his finger during an accident. He opened his first molding shop called Luxottica at the age of 23 which expanded to be the world’s largest maker of sunglasses and prescription eyeglasses. Luxottica, the known maker of Ray-Ban and Oakley eyewear, also owns 6,000 Sunglass Hut and Lenscrafters retail shops. The second richest man in Italy is now worth $11.5 billion.13. Li Ka-shingBorn to a family that fled mainland China for Hong Kong in 1940, his father died of tuberculosis which made him quit school at the age of 15 to support his family by working for 16 hours in a factory that made plastics and plastic flowers for US export. He founded Cheung Kong Industries in 1950, which manufactured plastics at first but later on ventured into real estate. The 9th richest person in the world has ownership in a number of multi-range companies from cellular phones, banking, satellite television, steel industries, and shipping.12. Howard SchultzHoward Schultz came from a poor family living in the Canarsie Bayview Houses, a housing project in Brooklyn, New York, which made him want to have a lifestyle beyond what his truck-driver father can provide. As he saw escape in sport, he became a football scholar at the University of North Michigan where he graduated with a degree in communication, the first in his family to do so. While working for Xerox, he discovered a small coffee shop called Starbucks and became captivated by it. He left Xerox and became the first CEO of Starbucks in 1987, which he expanded from its first 60 shops to over 16,000 outlets worldwide, giving him a net worth of $1.5 billion.11. Ursula BurnsUrsula Burns grew up in a housing project in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a hub for gangs. She was raised by her Panamanian-immigrant single mother who ran a daycare center at her home and ironed shirts for a fee so that she could send Ursula to Cathedral High School. She earned her Mechanical Engineering degree at NYU and became an intern at Xerox. Ursula Burns became the first African-American woman to ever lead a Fortune 500 Company and the 14th most powerful woman in the world.10. John Paul DeJoriaBefore John Paul Mitchell Systems became a success, its founder, John Paul DeJoria had a rough life. After his parents divorced when he was just 2 years old, he sold newspapers and Christmas cards to help his family until the age of 10 when he was sent to live in a foster home. An LA gang member before he joined the military, he was also employed by Redken Laboratories. He loaned $700 and founded JPM Systems to sell his company’s shampoo door-to-door while living out of his car. Today JPM Systems’ annual profit is nearly $900 million.9. Guy LalibertéBefore Cirque du Soleil came to life, its founder, Canadian-born Laliberté started his acts in circus as a fire-eater that walks on stilts. His venture paid off when he brought his successful troupe in 1987 from Quebec to the Los Angeles Arts Festival with no guarantee of a return fare for the cast. He now commands a total net worth of $2.5 billion.8. Do Won ChangDo Won Chang had to work three jobs as a janitor, gas station employee, and coffee shop attendant to support his family when they moved from Korea to America in 1981. After three years of thrift-spending, he was able to open his first retail store Fashion 21, which grew to be the retail clothing giant Forever 21, a pioneer in fast fashion. The multinational clothing empire with over 480 outlets worldwide generates an annual income of $3 billion.7. George SorosAfter surviving the Nazi occupation of Hungary in 1947, George Soros escaped the country to stay with his relatives in London. He supported his studies by working as a waiter and railway porter and then sold goods at a souvenir shop after graduating. He also wrote every merchant bank in England until he gained an entry-level job at Singer & Friedlander. He became “the man who broke the bank of England” due to his famous bet against the British pound in 1992, where he earned more than a billion dollars in profit in one plunge in the Black Wednesday UK currency crisis.6. Zdenek BakalaWith just a $50 bill wrapped in plastic and hidden in a sandwich, Zdenek Bakala fled communist Czechoslovakia in 1980 when he was 19 years old and made it to Lake Tahoe. He worked as a dishwasher at Harrah’s Casino while studying for his undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and an MBA from Dartmouth. He later on ventured in banking, opened his first company Credit Suisse First Boston in Prague after the fall of the Berlin Wall and presided over a coal company that has a $2.52 billion market.5. Harold SimmonsHarold Simmons grew up in a shack in the poor rural town of Golden, Texas with no plumbing or electricity. He still managed, however, to graduate with a B.A. and masters in Economics from the University of Texas. His first venture was a series of drugstores which were almost entirely funded with a loan. This became a 100-store chain which he sold to Eckerd for $50 million. He became famous as a master of the corporate buyout and currently owns 6 companies that trade on the NYSE including the world’s largest producer of titanium, Titanium Metals Corporation.4. Richard DesmondRichard Desmond was raised by a single mother living on top of a garage. He quit school at the age of 14 to focus on being a drummer while working as a coat-checker to help pay bills. Though he never became famous for his musical abilities, he later opened his own record store and published his first magazine, “International Musician and Recording World” and expanded the Desmond magazine empire with publications such as the British version of Penthouse and OK!. He now owns a number of publications around the world and was listed on the 2011 Sunday Times Rich List with a net worth of £950 million.3. Harry Wayne HuizengaHarry Wayne Huizenga was born in Chicago, Illinois to an abusive father. His family moved to Florida to save his parents marriage but his father never changed. He moved back to Chicago to go to college but soon dropped out and then signed up to be a reserve in the Army. He went back to Florida after his training and bought his first dump truck to start a trash disposal business. This venture became highly profitable so he purchased more garbage trucks and later built his company, the Waste Management Inc, which became well-known all over the US. He also purchased Blockbuster stores, which later merged with Viacom. He is credited for founding three Fortune 500 companies.2. Richard BransonBorn to a family of lawyers in Blackheath, London, he had poor academic performance due to his dyslexia. Therefore, he focused more on his business which included growing Christmas trees and raising parakeets. He later started his own record mail-order business at the age of 16. In 1972, he established the record store Virgin Records, which prospered in the 1980s with a number of outlets. He also created Virgin Atlantic Airwaves, which expanded Virgin Records into a music label, making him the 245th richest person in the world today.1. Roman AbramovichAn orphan at the age of four, this Russian business tycoon was raised by his uncle and grandmother. He got his first break from an expensive wedding gift given by his in-laws. He dropped out of college to pursue his business, which included selling imported plastic ducks from his Moscow apartment. He then ventured into managing the oil giant Sibneft after taking it over in 1995. He continued to flip his investments with profitable ventures such as Russian Aluminum and the steelmaker Evraz Group. He is now the 5th richest person in Russia and owns the $1.5 billion yacht ‘Eclipse,’ the largest private yacht docked in New York City and the Chelsea Football Club, among others.

I'll be moving to Salt Lake City, UT in August and will be joining a fast-growing EdTech company called Pluralsight (company) as a CorpDev Director. As part of my move, I've been researching Utah from both a tech and lifestyle perspective. Below are some reasons why Utah is an up-and coming place to build tech companies:Track Record: According to Inc Magazine, Utah is already in its third generation of breeding successful tech companies. The first generation (late 60s - 80s) included companies like Adobe Systems (company), Iomega, Novell (company), WordPerfect Corporation and Evans & Sutherland. The second generation (90s) included companies like Ancestry.com (company) and Adobe Analytics. The third generation (current) includes companies like Vivint, Qualtrics, Domo(company), InsideSales.com, Pluralsight (company) and Instructure (company).Culture: A strong sales & entrepreneurial orientated culture exists in Utah. Culture is key and has played a big part in building large tech hubs like Israel.Talent: Good state schools and BYU are breeding great talent with a strong focus on STEM fields.Attractive Policies + Infrastructure: Examples include tax breaks and a light-rail system that connects the state’s biggest cities. SLC also has a great airport that connects to the West Coast, East Coast and Europe. Commercial real estate is also cheaper compared to other major tech hubs.Network: Good relationships exist among local companies with strong support form the state and local governments.From a lifestyle perspective, assuming you like the outdoors, it is absolute heaven, which it makes easier to lure good talent. I think you will start seeing a lot more talent from other states move to Utah, especially as it is getting so expensive to live in some of the other major tech cities (e.g. San Francisco). From what I hear, access to capital is good within Utah and you can easily tap into West and East Coast money. All good VC and PE funds will cover companies based in Utah.Useful reading:Move Over, Silicon Valley: Utah Has Arrived (Inc Magazine)How Utah Became the Next Silicon Valley - The New Yorker (New Yorkers)