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Michael Dell Returns to CEO Role at Dell
head_dunce writes "It looks like Michael Dell is jumping back into the big chair at Dell because his company is slipping under the direction of Kevin Rollins. I wonder if they should be looking outside the company for new ideas, or if going back to basics is what needs to be done?"
Is he named after a computer? No... But who IS Dell? From Wikipedia:
Michael William Dell (born February 23, 1965 in Houston, Texas) is the founder of Dell, Inc.
Dell is the son of an orthodontist and grew up in a well-to-do Jewish family. He went to Herod Elementary. He had his first encounter with a computer at the age of 15 when he broke down a brand new Apple II computer and rebuilt it, just to see if he could. Dell attended Memorial High School in Houston, Texas, where he did not excel scholastically. Reportedly his government teacher, who is no longer there, commented to him that he "would probably never go anywhere in life," and upon her release in the summer of 2002 the entire school was outfitted with new Dells.[citation needed]
After graduating high school, he attended the University of Texas at Austin intending to become a physician. While at the university, he started a computer company called PC's Limited in his room in Dobie Center.[1]
The company became successful enough that, with the help of an additional loan from his grandparents, Dell dropped out of college at the age of 19 to run to Dell Computer Corporation. Over time, and despite a number of setbacks (including laptops that caught on fire in 1993, temporarily losing the consumer market to Gateway in the mid 1990s, and others), Dell survived to become the most profitable PC manufacturer in the world, with sales of US$49 billion and profits of US$3 billion in 2004. As Dell expanded its product line to more than computers, shareholders voted to rename the corporation Dell, Inc. in 2003. On March 4, 2004, he stepped down as CEO of Dell but stayed as chairman of the board, while Kevin Rollins, then president and COO, became president and CEO.
Accolades for Dell include: "Entrepreneur of the Year" from Inc. magazine; "Man of the Year" from PC Magazine; "Top CEO in American Business" from Worth Magazine; "CEO of the Year" from Financial World and Industry Week magazines.