Michael J. Saylor Information

Michael J. Saylor is an American entrepreneur, executive, inventor, author, and philanthropist. He was born to a military family in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1965 and spent his childhood living on various U.S. Air Force bases around the world. By his teenage years, his family had settled at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio-the birthplace of aviation and home of the Wright brothers. He graduated from high school first in his class, served as both class marshal and valedictorian, and was voted most likely to succeed by his peers. Mr. Saylor attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on a full Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps scholarship. While at MIT, he was a member of the Theta Delta Chi fraternity, and obtained dual degrees in aeronautics and astronautics as well as science, technology and society. In his free time, he played guitar in a rock band and learned to fly gliders. Mr. Saylor became fascinated by the application of computer simulation technology to public policy and business strategy, eventually writing his thesis "A Mathematical Model of a Renaissance Italian City State" while studying system dynamics at the MIT Sloan School of Management. In 1987, Mr. Saylor graduated with highest honors from MIT. Having already successfully completed flight officer training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, where he learned to fly, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. He joined the Air Force Reserve and began a career in consulting, with a focus on constructing computer simulations to support strategic decision-making at companies such as DuPont, Dow, and Exxon. In 1989 at the age of 24, Mr. Saylor combined his passions for technology, business, and the use of computer simulations to launch MicroStrategy. The company was founded on his vision of helping enterprises deliver intelligence everywhere. By harnessing the power of graphical operating systems and client server computing, and pioneering a new approach to business ...