Tech

The yearbook photos of 13 famous titans of tech

Steven Tweedie

2015-05-09T13:11:00Z

Ever been curious to see what famous tech CEOs and founders looked like before they were famous, back when they were still in high school?

From Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to Microsoft's Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, we've collected some of the most hilarious, awkward, and (sometimes) suave yearbook photos of some of the world's most famous leaders in tech.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs attended middle school and high school in Cupertino, California, where he was introduced to Steve Wozniak. The two shared a love for pranks and computers, and would later go on to found Apple with him in 1976.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was born in San Jose, California. While working at Hewlett-Packard, Wozniak was introduced to Steve Jobs, who was still in high school but working at HP for the summer. The two hit it off, and the rest is history.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates grew up in Seattle, Washington, where he attended a prestigious prep school called Lakeside School and got to first use a computer. Gates then went on to Harvard, and later founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975.

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt grew up in Virginia, where he attended Yorktown High School and earned a varsity letter for cross country running.

Apple CEO Tim Cook grew up in Robertsdale, Alabama, where he attended Robertsdale High School. After studying at Auburn and Duke and a 13-year stint at IBM, Cook joined Apple in 1998.

Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was born in Detroit, and grew up in Michigan where he attended Detroit Country Day. He achieved a perfect score on the math section of the SAT, and currently owns the Los Angeles Clippers.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin was born in Moscow, and immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union when he was six. He attended school in Maryland and excelled in math, and attended the University of Maryland and Standford before co-founding Google in 1998 with Larry Page.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but he attended high school in Florida at Miami Palmetto Senior High School. He later studied at University of Florida and Princeton before founding Amazon in 1994.

Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page grew up in Michigan, where he attended Okemos Montessori School and East Lansing High School. He later went on to study engineering at University of Michigan and computer science at Stanford before founding Google with Sergey Brin in 1998.

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban grew up in Pennsylvania, where he attended Mount Lebanon High School and the University of Pittsburgh. He left University of Pittsburgh a year later to enroll at Indiana University, and eventually moved to Texas where he sold his first company, MicroSolutions, for $6 million in 1990.

Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell grew up in Houston, Texas, where he attended Herod Elementary School and Memorial High School. At the University of Texas, Dell sold computer upgrades and later founded Dell Computer Corporation in 1984.

Yahoo co-founder David Filo was born in Wisconsin, but he grew up in Louisiana and graduated from Sam Houston High School. He studied computer science at Tulane University, and attended graduate school at Stanford before co-founding what would become Yahoo in 1994.

Yahoo co-founder and former CEO Jerry Yang was born in Taiwan but moved to San Jose, California when he was 10, where he attended Sierramont Middle School and Piedmont Hills High School. While studying at Stanford, Yang met David Filo, and the two founded Yahoo! in 1994.

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