Paul Allen
- Net Worth
- $15 B As of September 2012
At a Glance
- Age: 59
- Source of Wealth: Microsoft, investments, self-made
- Residence: Mercer Island, WA
- Country of Citizenship: United States
- Education: Drop Out, Washington State University
- Marital Status: Single
Forbes Lists
#20 Forbes 400
#20 in United States
Profile
Microsoft cofounder and philanthropist
Paul Allen has been enjoying an upswing in wealth and business activity
lately. Shares of the software maker he started with Bill Gates have
risen this year, but the real winners are his private investment
portfolio (media, energy and tech) and years-long effort to rehab
downtown Seattle's South Lake Union district, an urbanista paradise
where more luxury rentals
are going up and companies (Amazon is in 12 buildings) are moving in
(although word is that Allen may be a seller here soon enough). Allen is
that rare billionaire who combines passions for sports and science. He
owns the Seattle Seahawks (pro football), the Portland Trailblazers (pro
basketball) and is a part-owner in the Seattle Sounders FC (pro
soccer). The cancer survivor also has a keen interest in neuroscience,
having recently lost his mother to Alzheimer's disease. To date he has
committed $500 million to the Allen Institute for Brain Science, which
makes public a detailed "atlas" of genes that control the human brain.
He loaned his 414-foot yacht, Octopus and its personal deep-sea
remote-operated vehicle to survey populations of the rare Coelecanth and
recover the bell from the British warship HMS Hood, sunk in 1941 by the
Nazis. Named the most philanthropic American in 2011 by the Chronicle
of Philanthropy, Allen donates prolifically to Seattle-area causes in
education, the arts and health care.
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