- Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and the world's wealthiest
man, is to receive an honorary knighthood for "services to global
enterprise".
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- The recommendation that he receive the honour was made
by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown. Buckingham Palace is expected to announce
it tomorrow, when Mr Gates will speak at a conference on "Advancing
Enterprise" organised by Mr Brown.
- The controversial software company creator - whose commercial
success has led to hatred of him among his competitors - is worth an estimated
$40 billion (£22 billion). Microsoft is described as the "Evil
Empire" by those who resent its grip on the computer industry.
-
- Other Americans to have received the KBE include George
Bush, the former president, Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York,
Steven Spielberg, the film director, and Alan Greenspan, the chairman of
the US Federal Reserve Bank.
-
- Mr Greenspan is another speaker at tomorrow's conference.
The event has prompted resentment in the Prime Minister's close circle,
who knew nothing about it until a fortnight ago.
-
- They are annoyed that the conference - which gathers
together luminaries from the business and political worlds including Mervyn
King, the governor of the Bank of England, Jean-Claude Trichet, president
of the European Central Bank, Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco,
and Lord Browne, chief executive of BP - is taking place in Tony Blair's
most difficult week since he became Prime Minister in 1997.
-
- "On the eve of Hutton and the university fees vote,
this is Brown saying, 'Look at all my powerful friends'," said a Downing
Street adviser.
-
- Mr Gates has been a notable donor to charities and good
causes. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was created in 2000 to improve
"equity in global health and learning". He has donated nearly
$26 billion to the foundation.
-
- The foundation set up a £139 million scholarship
scheme three years ago to attract the brightest students to Cambridge University.
It has also invested millions of dollars in research for an Aids vaccine.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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