Charles Simonyi (Hungarian: Simonyi Károly, pronounced; born September 10, 1948), son of Károly Simonyi, is a Hungarian-born American computer programmer, businessman, and space tourist. He was head of Microsoft’s application software group, where he oversaw the creation of Microsoft’s flagship Office suite of applications. He now heads his own company, Intentional Software, with the aim of developing and marketing his concept of intentional programming. In April 2007, aboard Soyuz TMA-10, he became the fifth space tourist and the second Hungarian in space. In March 2009, aboard Soyuz TMA-14, he made a second trip to the International Space Station. His estimated net worth is US$1.4 billion.
Biography
Early life in Hungary
Simonyi was born in Budapest, Hungary, the son of Károly Simonyi, a professor of electrical engineering at the Technical University of Budapest. While in secondary school he worked part-time as a night watchman at a computer laboratory in early 1960’s, overseeing a large Soviet Ural II mainframe. He took an interest in computing and learned to program from one of the laboratory’s engineers. By the time he left school, he had learned to develop compilers and sold one of these to a government department. He presented a demonstration of his compiler to the members of a Danish computer trade delegation. In 2006 he said when he was young his dream was, “to get out of Hungary, go to the West and be free.”
| Charles Simonyi | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 10, 1948 Budapest, Hungary |
| Nationality | Hungarian |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley (B.S.) Stanford University (Ph.D.) |
| Occupation | Software architect |
| Known for | Hungarian notation, space tourism, style sheet (desktop publishing) |
| Notable work | Microsoft Office |
| Net worth | USD$1.4 Billion |
| Spouse(s) | Lisa Persdotter (m. 2008) |
| Children | 2 |
| Space Adventures Tourist | |
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Time in space
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26d 14h 27m |
| Missions | Soyuz TMA-10 / TMA-9, Soyuz TMA-14 / TMA-13 |
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Mission insignia
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- Charlie Ergen is the cofounder and chairman of satellite TV provider Dish Network and satellite communications company EchoStar.
- Ergen first began selling satellite dishes out of the back of a truck in Colorado in 1980.
- He took Dish public in 1996. Today, it boasts over 12 million subscribers.
- EchoStar, which has some two dozen satellites in space, was spun off from Dish in 2008.
- Ergen stepped down as CEO of Dish for the second time in 2017 to focus on the company’s new wireless network for the Internet of Things.
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