Paul Allen

Early life and education

Paul Allen was born on January 21, 1953 in Seattle, Washington to Kenneth Sam Allen and Edna Faye (née Gardner) Allen. Allen attended Lakeside School, a private school in Seattle, where he befriended Bill Gates, three years younger, with whom he shared an enthusiasm for computers. They used Lakeside's Teletype terminal to develop their programming skills on several time-sharing computer systems. They also used the laboratory of the Computer Science Department of the University of Washington; on at least one occasion in 1971 they were banned from the laboratory for abuse of their privileges there. After obtaining a perfect SAT score of 1600 and graduation, Allen went to Washington State University, where he joined Phi Kappa Theta fraternity, but dropped out after two years in order to work as a programmer for Honeywell in Boston, near where Bill Gates had ended up as well. Allen later convinced Gates to drop out of Harvard University in order to create Microsoft. Gates explained his official status with Harvard that, "...if things [Microsoft] hadn't worked out, I could always go back to school. I was officially on [a] leave [of absence]."

Microsoft

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, Paul Allen with his friend Bill Gates, in 1975, began marketing a BASIC programming language interpreter. Allen came up with the original name of "Micro-Soft," as recounted in a 1995 Fortune magazine article. In 1980, after promising to deliver IBM a Disk Operating System (DOS) they had not yet developed for the Intel 8088-based IBM PC, Allen spearheaded a deal for Microsoft to purchase a Quick and Dirty Operating System (QDOS) which was written by Tim Paterson who, at the time, was employed at Seattle Computer Products. As a result of this transaction, Microsoft was able to secure a contract to supply the DOS that would eventually run on IBM's PC line. This contract with IBM was the watershed in Microsoft history that led to Allen's and Gates' wealth and success. Allen effectively left Microsoft in 1982 due to serious illness. Allen officially resigned from his position on the Microsoft board of directors in November 2000 but was asked to consult as a senior strategy advisor to the company's executives and still owns a reported 100 million shares.

Financial and technology

Aerospace

Allen confirmed that he was the sole investor behind Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne suborbital commercial spacecraft on October 4, 2004. SpaceShipOne climbed to an altitude of 377,591 feet (115,090 m) and was the first privately funded effort to successfully put a civilian in suborbital space. It won the Ansari X Prize competition and received the $10 million prize.

On December 13, 2011, Allen announced the creation of Stratolaunch Systems. Stratolaunch is a proposed orbital launch system consisting of a dual-bodied, 6 engine jet aircraft, capable of carrying a rocket to high altitude; the rocket would then separate from its carrier aircraft and fire its own engines to complete its climb into orbit. If successful, this project would be the first wholly privately funded space transport system. Stratolaunch, which is partnering with Orbital ATK and Scaled Composites, is intended to launch in inclement weather, fly without worrying about the availability of launch pads and to operate from different locations. Stratolaunch plans to ultimately host six to ten missions per year. On April 13, 2015, Vulcan Aerospace was announced. It is the company within Paul Allen's Vulcan Inc. that plans and executes projects to shift how the world conceptualizes space travel through cost reduction and on-demand access.

Real Estate

Allen's Vulcan Real Estate division offers development and portfolio management services, and is known for the redevelopment of the South Lake Union neighborhood immediately north of downtown Seattle. Vulcan has developed 6.3 million square feet (590,000 m²) of new residential, office, retail and biotechnology research space and has a total development capacity of 10,000,000 sq ft (930,000 m²). Vulcan advocated for the Seattle Streetcar line known as South Lake Union Streetcar, which runs from Seattle's Westlake Center to the south end of Lake Union. In 2012, The Wall Street Journal called Allen's South Lake Union investment "unexpectedly lucrative" and one that led to his firm selling a 1,800,000 sq ft (170,000 m²) office complex to Amazon.com for US$1.16 billion, one of the most expensive office deals ever in Seattle. "It's exceeded my expectations," Allen said of the South Lake Union development.

Venues

Portland Trail Blazers

Allen purchased the Portland Trail Blazers NBA team in 1988 from California real estate developer Larry Weinberg for $70 million. He was instrumental in the development and funding of the Moda Center (previously known as the Rose Garden), the arena where the Blazers play. He purchased the arena on April 2, 2007, and stated that this was a major milestone and a positive step for the franchise. Since taking over the franchise, the Allen-owned Trail Blazers have reached the playoffs 19 times including the NBA Finals in 1990 and 1992 (As of July 2015) According to Forbes, the Blazers were valued at $940 million in 2015 and ranked No. 12 out of 30 NBA teams.

Seattle Seahawks

Allen purchased the Seattle Seahawks NFL team in 1996 when former owner Ken Behring threatened to move the Seahawks to Southern California. Herman Sarkowsky, a former Seahawks minority owner, told The Seattle Times about Allen's decision to buy the team, "I'm not sure anybody else in this community would have done what [Allen] did." The Seahawks are valued at $1.33 billion in August 2014 by Forbes, which says the team has "one of the most rabid fan bases in the NFL." Under the helm of Allen, the Seahawks have been to the Super Bowl three times winning Super Bowl XLVIII and have won three NFC Championships (2005, 2013, 2014).

Seattle Sounders FC

Allen's Vulcan Sports & Entertainment is part of the ownership team of the Seattle Sounders FC, a Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise that began play in 2009 at CenturyLink Field, a stadium also controlled by Allen. The ownership team also includes film producer Joe Roth, businessman Adrian Hanauer, and comedian Drew Carey. The Sounders sold out every home game during its first season, setting a new MLS record for average match attendance and the most season tickets sold in the league. Seattle Sounders FC is only the second expansion team in MLS history to win the U.S. Open Cup tournament in its first season.

Filmmaking

Paul Allen and his sister Jody Allen are the owners and executive producers of Vulcan Productions, a television and film production company headquartered in Seattle within the entertainment division of Vulcan Inc. Their films have received various recognition, ranging from a Peabody to Independent Spirit Awards, Grammys and Emmys. In 2014 alone, Allen's film, We The Economy, won 12 awards including a Webby award for best Online News & Politics Series. The films have also been nominated for Golden Globes and Academy Awards among many others. Vulcan Productions' films and documentary projects include Far from Heaven (2002), Hard Candy (2005), Rx for Survival: A Global Health Challenge (2005), Where God Left His Shoes (2006), Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial (2007), This Emotional Life (2010), We The Economy (2014) Racing Extinction (2015) and Oscar-nominated Body Team 12 (2015).

In 2013, Vulcan Productions co-produced the Richard E. Robbins-directed film Girl Rising which tells the stories of girls from different parts of the world who seek an education. Globally over 205 million households watched Girl Rising during the CNN and CNN International premieres, and over 4 million people have engaged with Girl Rising through websites and social media. Through the associated 10x10 program, over $2.1 million has been donated to help girls receive an education worldwide.

Also in 2013, Vulcan Productions signed on as a producing partner of Pandora's Promise, a documentary about nuclear power, directed by Oscar-nominated director Robert Stone. It was released in select theaters nationwide June 12, 2013 and on CNN on November 7, 2013. A variety of college and private screenings as well as panel discussions have been hosted throughout the country.

Philanthropy

Paul Allen has given more than $2 billion towards the advancement of science, technology, education, wildlife conservation, the arts and community services in his lifetime. The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation was established to administer a portion of Allen's philanthropic contributions. Since its formation, the foundation has given more than $494 million to over 1,500 nonprofits and in 2010, Allen became a signatory of The Giving Pledge, promising to give at least half of his fortune to philanthropic causes. Allen has received commendations for his philanthropic commitments including the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy and Inside Philanthropy's "Philanthropist of the Year."

Science and research

In September 2003, Allen launched the Allen Institute for Brain Science with a $100 million contribution dedicated to understanding how the human brain works. In total, Paul Allen has donated $500 million to the institute, making it his single largest philanthropic recipient. Since its launch, the Allen Institute for Brain Science has taken a Big Science and Open Science approach to tackle projects. The institute makes research tools available to the scientific community using an open data model. Some of the institute's most notable projects include the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas, Allen Human Brain Atlas and the Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas. The Allen Institute is also helping to advance and shape the White House's BRAIN Initiative as well as the Human Brain Project.

Founded in 2014, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) main focus is to research and engineer artificial intelligence. The Institute is modeled after the Allen Institute for Brain Science and led by researcher and professor, Dr. Oren Etzioni. AI2 has undertaken four main projects, Aristo, Semantic Scholar, Euclid and Plato. Project Aristo is working to build an AI system capable of passing an 8th grade science exam.

In December 2014, Allen committed $100 million to create the Allen Institute for Cell Science in Seattle. The institute is investigating and creating a virtual model of cells in the hope of bringing forth treatment of different diseases. Like the institutes before it, all data generated and tools developed will be made publicly available online.

Launched in 2016 with a $100 million commitment, The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group aims to discover and support ideas at the frontier of bioscience in an effort accelerate the pace of discovery. The group is led by Tom Skalak and will be targeting scientists and research areas that ″some might consider out-of-the-box at the very edges of knowledge.″

Allen launched the Allen Distinguished Investigators Awards (ADI) in 2010 to support scientists pursuing early-stage research projects who often have difficulty securing funding from traditional sources. The ADI grant program backs pioneering researchers in the areas of emerging life sciences technology to cellular decision-making and neural engineering with the intent that research made possible by these grants will advance each respective field.

Paul Allen donated the seed money to build SETI's Allen Telescope Array, eventually contributing $30 million to the project.

Allen has a flower fly named after him for his contributions to Dipterology, called Paul Allen's flower fly.

Environment and conservation

Allen has bankrolled a range of wildlife conservation projects over the past several years, including contributing millions in direct gifts and grants to program, projects, initiatives and charities. By marrying technology development with philanthropic interests, he is working to address the trafficking of endangered species and ensure stable or thriving generations of wild animals.

Allen provided more than $7 million to fund the census, the largest pan-African aerial survey since the 1970s. The Great Elephant Census team is flying over 20 countries to survey the African savannah elephants with hopes that the accurate and up-to-date data will spur immediate protective actions and long-term conservation management plans.

Allen began supporting the University of British Columbia's Sea Around Us Project in 2014 to improve data on global fisheries as a way to fight illegal fishing. Part of his $2.6 million in funding will go to create FishBase, an online database about adult finfish.

Launched in July 2015, Paul Allen is funding the Global FinPrint initiative, a three-year survey of sharks and rays in coral reef areas. The survey is the largest of its kind and designed to provide data to help conservation programs. The initiative is a partnership between Allen's Vulcan Inc, Stony Brook University, Florida International University, James Cook University and the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences. Survey results will be made available in summer 2018.

Allen backed Washington state initiative 1401 to prohibit the purchase, sale and distribution of products made from 10 endangered species including elephants, rhinos, lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, marine turtles, pangolins, sharks and rays. The initiative gained enough signatures to be on the state's ballot on November 3, 2015, and passed.

Alongside the United States Department of Transportation, Allen and Vulcan Inc. launched the Smart City Challenge, a contest inviting American cities to transform their transportation systems. Created in 2015 with USDOT's $40 million commitment as well as $10 million from Allen's Vulcan Inc., the challenge aims to create a first-of-its-kind modern city that will demonstrate how cities can improve quality of life while lowering greenhouse gas emissions. The winning city was Columbus, Ohio.

Created in 2015, the Smart Catch program is designed for chefs by chefs to recognize and promote restaurants serving sustainable seafood. The program right now is being used by over 80 restaurants in Seattle.

As a founding member of the International SeaKeepers Society, Paul Allen hosts its proprietary SeaKeeper 1000TM oceanographic and atmospheric monitoring system on all three of his megayachts.

Paul Allen also has a long history of investing in Africa. Including the following:

Ebola

In 2014, Paul Allen pledged at least $100 million toward the fight to end the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa, making him the largest private donor in the Ebola crisis. He also created a website called TackleEbola.org as a way to spread awareness as well as serve as a way donors can fund projects in need. The site additionally highlights organizations working to stop Ebola that Allen supports such as International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, Médecins Sans Frontières, Partners in Health, UNICEF and World Food Program USA. On April 21, 2015, Allen brought together key leaders in the Ebola fight at the Ebola Innovation Summit in San Francisco. The summit aimed to share key learnings and reinforce the need for continued action and support to bring the number of Ebola cases down to zero. As part of his ongoing commitment to end the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the Paul Allen Foundation partnered with the United States Department of State and MRIGlobal to develop a new first of its kind medevac biocontainment units. These units will be used by the U.S. State Department to help safely evacuate healthcare workers who might fall ill to infectious diseases such as Ebola.

In October 2015, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation announced it would award seven new grants totaling $11 million to prevent future widespread outbreaks of the virus.

Exploration

In 2012, Allen along with his research team and the Royal Navy attempted to retrieve the bell from HMS Hood, which sank in the Denmark Strait during World War II, but the attempt failed due to poor weather. On August 7, 2015, they tried again and recovered the bell in very good condition. It was further restored and put on display in May 2016 in the National Museum of the Royal Navy in remembrance to the 1,415 men lost at sea.

In March 2015, an Allen-led research team found the Japanese battleship Musashi in the Sibuyan Sea off the coast of the Philippines. Musashi and her sister ship Yamato were two of the largest and most technologically impressive battleships in naval history.

On August 18, 2017, Allen's Research Vessel (R/V) Petrel located another major historical artifact: the USS Indianapolis (CA-35). The Allen-led research team found the ship nearly 5,500 meters below the surface, resting on the floor of the North Pacific Ocean.

The Arts

Over the years, Paul Allen has established several non-profit community institutions that feature his private collections of historic artifacts. These include:

An active art collector, Paul Allen has gifted more than $100 million to support the arts. On October 15, 2012, the Americans for the Arts awarded Allen with the Eli and Edythe Broad Award for Philanthropy in the Arts. Allen has also loaned out more than 300 pieces from his private art collection to 47 different venues. In 2013, Allen sold Barnett Newman's Onement VI (1953) at Sotheby's in New York for $43.8 million, surpassing its estimate of $30 million to $40 million.

In 2015, Allen founded the Seattle Art Fair, a four-day event with 60+ galleries from around the world including works from the Gagosian Gallery, David Zwirner and many others. The event drew thousands and inspired other satellite fairs throughout the city.

As a musician-himself and passionate fan, in August 2016, Allen announced the launch of Upstream Music + Summit Fest. Fashioned after South by Southwest and Treefort Music Fest, the festival will take place in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood focusing on "emerging" local artists starting May 2017.

Education

In 1989, Paul Allen donated $2 million to the University of Washington to construct the Allen Library, which was named after his father Kenneth S. Allen, a former associate director of the University of Washington library system. In the same year, Allen donated an additional $8 million to establish the Kenneth S. Allen Library Endowment. In 2012, the endowment was renamed the Kenneth S. and Faye G. Allen Library Endowment after Allen's mother (a noted bibliophile) died.

In 2002, Allen donated $14 million to the University of Washington to construct the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering. The building was dedicated in October 2003.

In 2010, Allen announced a gift of $26 million to build the Paul G. Allen School of Global Animal Health at Washington State University, his alma mater. The gift is the largest private donation in the university's history.

In 2016, Allen pledged a $10 million donation over four years for the creation of the Allen Discovery Centers at Tufts University and Stanford University. The centers would fund research that would read and write the morphogenetic code. Over eight years the donation could be as much as $20 million.

In 2017, Allen donated $40 million (with an additional $10 million added by Microsoft) to reorganize the University of Washington's Computer Science and Engineering department into the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering.

Personal life

Allen was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1982. His cancer was successfully treated by several months of radiation therapy.

Allen has never married and has no children. He has been, at times, reclusive.

Music

Paul Allen received his first electric guitar at the age of sixteen, and was inspired to play it by listening to Jimi Hendrix. In 2000, Allen played rhythm guitar on the independently-produced and eponymous album Grown Men. In 2013, he had a major label release on Sony's Legacy Recordings; Everywhere at Once by Paul Allen and the Underthinkers. PopMatters.com described Everywhere at Once as "a quality release of blues-rock that's enjoyable from start to finish."

Yachting and treasure hunting

The launch of Paul Allen's 414 feet (126 m) yacht, Octopus, secured its position as one of the world's largest yachts in 2003. As of 2013, it is 14th in the list of motor yachts by length. The yacht is equipped with two helicopters, a submarine, an ROV, a swimming pool, a music studio and a basketball court.

Allen has loaned Octopus for a number of operations. Most notably, Octopus was used in the search for a missing American pilot and two officers whose plane disappeared off Palau and the study of a rare fish called a coelacanth among many others.

Octopus is a member of AMVER, a voluntary group ship reporting system used worldwide by authorities to arrange assistance for those in distress at sea.

The ship is also known for its annual celebrity-studded parties hosted at Cannes film festival, where Allen and his band play for guests. These performances have included musicians such as Usher and Dave Stewart.

Allen also owns Tatoosh, which is one of the world's 100 largest yachts. In January 2016, it was reported that Tatoosh allegedly damaged coral in the Cayman Islands. In April 2016, the Department of Environment (DoE) and Allen's Vulcan Inc. successfully completed a restoration plan to help speed recovery and protect the future of coral in this area.

Awards and recognition

Paul Allen has received various awards recognizing many different areas including sports, philanthropy, and the arts:

Honorary degrees

Books

In 2011, Allen's memoir Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft, was published by Portfolio, a Penguin Group imprint. The book recounts how Allen became enamored with computers at an early age, conceived the idea for Microsoft, recruited his friend Bill Gates to join him, and launched what would become the world's most successful software company. The paperback version of Idea Man, which included a new epilogue, came out on October 30, 2012.