Paul G. Allen is a visionary, businessman, and philanthropist. Allen owns and invests in telecommunications, media, sports and entertainment companies that strive to improve the way we live, learn, do business and experience the world.

The primary holdings in his portfolio include Vulcan Inc., Charter Communications, the Portland Trail Blazers NBA team and Seattle Seahawks NFL franchise, and more than 100 other enterprises and investments. Allen is also the founder of Experience Music Project (Seattle's one-of-a-kind, interactive music museum), Vulcan Productions (an independent film production company), and is a partner in the entertainment studio DreamWorks SKG.

A leader in the digital and online revolution, Allen maximizes synergy between his companies to encourage creativity and innovation. For the past 12 years, he has also contributed to communities in the Pacific Northwest and beyond through the six Paul G. Allen Foundations, which support the arts, health and human services, medical research, forest protection, technology education and other community needs.

After co-founding Microsoft Corporation with Bill Gates in 1975, Allen served as the company's executive vice president of research and new product development, helping to engineer many of the company's most successful products.

He left Microsoft in 1983, moving on to develop other software applications and to launch Vulcan. Allen is a Seattle native, educated at Lakeside High School and Washington State University.