30 Astonishing Facts We Bet You Didn't Know About Michael Dell

6 February 2019, 5:25 pm EST By Ruby Karnick

Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, one of the world's largest technology infrastructure companies, has been ranked as one among the most powerful people in the world by several magazines. Here are some unbelievable facts about the American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and author:

At the age of 24, he was honored with the awards like "Entrepreneur of the Year" from Inc. magazine, "CEO of the Year" from Financial World, Industry Week and Chief Executive magazines, and "Top CEO in American Business" from Worth magazine.
He received an honorary doctorate in Economic Science from the University of Limerick in honor of his investment in Ireland and his support for educational initiatives, in the year 2002.
Dell serves on the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum, which is the executive committee of the International Business Council, the U.S. Business Council.
He was awarded with the Franklin Institute's Bower Award for Business Leadership, in the year 2013.
He reportedly served for a brief period as a member of the U.S. President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
He paid around $100.5 million for Manhattan's One57 penthouse in the year 2014, which till date is said to hold the record for the most expensive home ever sold in the city.
He wrote "Direct from Dell: Strategies That Revolutionized an Industry," in collaboration with Catherine Fredman, which was published in the year 1999. The book is an account of his early life, his company's founding, growth and missteps, as well as lessons learned.
He managed to take the Dell Inc private for $24.4 billion in the biggest management buyout since the Great Recession, on January 5, 2013.
Dell and his wife established the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation in 1999, with primary focus on grants, urban education, childhood health and family economic stability.
In the year 2017, Dell, in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, being a Houston native, pledged $36 million to relief efforts.

He is said to have donated over $1.8 million to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, an organization dedicated to men and women serving in the Israel Defense Force, the families of fallen soldiers, wounded veterans, in 2014.
He is also reportedly behind the founding of the Dell Jewish Community Campus in the Northwest Hills neighborhood of Austin.
In the year 1992, Dell became the youngest CEO of a company, at the age of 27, to be ranked in Fortune magazine's list of the top 500 corporations.
Michael Saul Dell was born on February 23, 1965 in Houston, to Jewish parents - Alexander Dell, an orthodontist, and Lorraine Charlotte, a stockbroker.
He studied at Herod Elementary School and Memorial High School in Houston, before going on to University of Texas, from where he dropped out at the age of 19.
It is reported that he took on a high school equivalency exam at the very young age of eight, in an effort to enter the business world early.
He got his very first computer an Apple II at the age of 15, when he was playing with computers at Radio Shack. He immediately disassembled the Apple II to check how it worked.
During his time at Memorial High School, he sold Houston Post subscriptions in the summer, as a part time job. He learned to target customers for newspaper subscriptions and has reportedly made around $18,000 that summer.
This led to his first business where he hired several employees to work for him and within a year, he made a gross profit of nearly $200,000, following which he quit his studies.
During his time as a freshman pre-med student at the University of Texas, he started a informal business in Room 2713 of the Dobie Center residential building, through which he was putting together and selling upgrade kits for personal computers.

He registered his business as "PC's Limited," operating out of a condominium, in January 1984. The business reportedly sold between $50,000 and $80,000 in upgraded PCs, kits, and add-on components.
Even as a teenager, Dell has reportedly planned his investments, as is said to have invested his earnings in Stock and Precious metals.
Dell founded MSD Capital L.P. to manage his family's investments, in the year 1988, which oversees the publicly traded securities, private equity activities, and real estate.
His Foundation has provided $50 million in grants to three health-related organizations associated with the University of Texas: the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Advancement of Healthy Living, the Dell Pediatric Research Institute.
Since the year 1999, the MSDF has committed $1.23 billion to non-profits and social enterprises in the United States, India and South Africa.
By the year 2011, MSDF had committed more than $650 million to children's issues and community initiatives in the United States, India and South Africa.
He oversaw the Dell Inc's acquisition of the EMC Corporation, enterprise software and storage company for $67 billion, on September 7, 2016, which has been labeled a the "highest-valued tech acquisition in history."
Dell Inc. agreed to pay a $100 million penalty in July 2010 to settle SEC charges of disclosure and accounting fraud, out of which he and former CEO Kevin Rollins paid $4 million each, while the former CFO James Schneider paid $3 million. This is in relation to the undisclosed payments from Intel Corporation.
Dell married Susan Lieberman, a former athlete, on October 28, 1989, in Austin, Texas, having met her through a client in February 1988. She has a great flair for fashion and launched her own fashion label named Phi in the year 2003. The couple has four children - daughters Alexa Dell, Kira Dell, Juliette Dell, and a son - Zachary Dell.
Dell Computer Corporation was first incorporated in May 1984, with a few order takers, a few people to fulfill the orders and a manufacturing staff of three guys with screwdrivers sitting ay six-foot tables. He was once recalled the capitalization cost to be $1,000.