Programmer and businessman Gabe Logan Newell is one of the co-founders and CEO of Valve, which, among other things, owns the Steam service. In the fall of 2017, Newell was named one of the 100 richest people in the United States by Forbes magazine.
Early years and work at Microsoft
Gabe Newell was born in November 1962 in Seattle. He began to create computer programs as a child, at the age of 13, and for this he used the ALGOL programming language.
In the early 1980s, Gabe Newell was educated at Harvard University, but in the end he was expelled and did not receive a diploma.
Then Newell became one of the developers and a shareholder in Microsoft. For more than ten years he worked in this company and was able to earn several million dollars during this time. Newell contributed greatly to the first three releases of Windows.
Gabe Newell and Valve
In 1996, Newell retired from Microsoft and, along with his partner Mike Harrington, founded the Valve studio. At the initial stage, they used their personal funds to finance the activities of the company. In particular, Gabe and Mike acquired the source code for the engine from the game Quake, after which Valve specialists were engaged in reworking and improving it.
In 1998, the ambitious studio released the acclaimed shooter Half-Life. It quickly gained a large following among gamers and subsequently became the basis for games such as Team Fortress Classic and Counter-Strike.
In 2000, Harrington decided to leave Valve, and Newell completely bought out his stake in the business.
In 2003, Valve announced the launch of a digital distribution and sales service for Steam games. Today this service is considered the leader in its segment and is very popular among gamers.
And in 2004 the game Half-Life II was released. At that time, in many respects, it was a real breakthrough in the gaming industry.
In addition, in the 2000s, Valve released several more hit singles, such as Portal and Team Fortress 2.
Since 2008, the company has switched to creating multiplayer games, in particular, it was Valve who developed such products as Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2.
In 2011, experts estimated the value of Valve Corporation in the range of $ 2 billion to $ 4 billion, while the company employed only 250 people. As Newell himself argued, the company is more profitable per employee than Apple or Google. By the end of 2012, Valve had grown to 400 employees.
In the same 2012, Newell was included in the list of the richest people in the world according to Forbes (he was placed at 854th place). His personal fortune at that time was equal to 1.5 billion US dollars.
In March 2013, Newell received a BAFTA Fellowship Award for his contributions to the video game industry and was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.
In October 2017, the same Forbes estimated Newell's fortune at $ 5.5 billion.
Interesting facts about the personal life of a programmer
Since 1996, Gabe's wife is a woman named Lisa (maiden name - Mennet), the couple have two sons. The whole family lives in California in the city of Long Beach in a house by the beach. It is also known that the eldest son of Gabe is named Gray and he is also involved in game development.
Newell had a congenital disease - Fuchs's dystrophy. With this ailment, the cornea of the eye is destroyed, and at some point the programmer's vision fell very much. However, after two corneal transplants in 2006 and 2007, Newell began to see well again.
Newell has an unusual hobby - plumbing. He specially bought for himself a milling and grinding machine, as well as barrels for bluing steel billets. During his leisure hours, Newell makes internet tablet stands, swords, and more. Newell finds this a great way to take a break from sitting in front of a monitor.
