Billionaire has a nice ring to it, but do you ever wonder how people come to have that much money. I am not talking about stars, actresses, actors, or entertainers. I am talking about everyday people like you or I. Millionaires and billionaires come into their money in many different ways. Some inherit the money, some are just born into money and some just make some great investments. Of course there are some that just come with great inventions or business ideas. This would be the case with David Duffield. He made his money off a software company called PeopleSoft’s, that he co-founded with a partner.
He attended Cornell University where he received degrees in Bachelor of Arts and Science and also in Master of Business Administration. When he first graduating from the university, he worked at IBM. Then he went on to start Information Associates. At this company they worked at producing systems for higher learning. He also started Integral Systems. In 1987, he and his partner started a business called PeopleSoft’s. The business is a software company. He was the backbone of this company. He was the one with the visions and the drive to make things happen. Eventually the co-founder stepped away from the company but he stayed on as CEO. But he to walked away from the company. He did stay as chairman. At one point he returned as the CEO for a short time but again stepped down. The company was sold to Larry Oracle a year ago for a ten billion dollar deal. This was done in a takeover, but helped make him a very rich man. Duffield says he may return to the software business someday.
He has done many thinks in his career and has been rewarded in some great ways. Cornell University, where he graduated from, has a research center that is named after him. This happened after he donated 20 million dollars, in honor of his parents. It is used for studying nanoscience. He also purchased a lakeshore estate in Nevada for 50 million dollars.
He who likes to stay busy, still works to this day. He works in another software firm who has a staff of about sixty. He is married to Cheryl Duffield, who is a board chairman for private schools. They have 9 children. They adopted six of them. They both have a great love for dogs and do a lot of different things to try and protect them.
He now wants to build a 72,000 square foot house. This would be a custom built home three stories high. It would even be bigger then the White house. But a lot of neighbors are complaining that it will be way to big for the neighborhood. Some people insist that he is trying to take over the neighborhood and are fighting to have it stopped.
He is no doubt one of the world’s richest billionaires and he is not done yet.