Robert Gaskins is an American software developer. He is one of the creators of PowerPoint, and an expert and author on the

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

of the English concertina.

Education and professional work

Gaskins was educated in

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, and subsequently did interdisciplinary graduate study in literature and computing. In the early 1980s Gaskins worked five years as manager of computer science research at Bell Northern Research, an international telecommunications R&D laboratory in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

. Subsequently, he joined Forethought, Inc., where the development of PowerPoint was begun. Gaskins was the entrepreneur behind the

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development (music), the process by which thematic material is reshaped * Photographic development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting * Development hell, when a proje ...

of PowerPoint, later known as ''Microsoft PowerPoint'' after acquisition by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

in the early 1990s. Lee Gomes wrote in ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'': Many original documents written by Robert Gaskins during the early history of PowerPoint's strategy and development are online for public access. After leaving Microsoft, Gaskins became somewhat renowned as an expert on the

of the English concertina.

References

External links

* American computer businesspeople Microsoft employees Nortel employees University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Southern California alumni Los Angeles City College alumni 1943 births Living people 20th-century American inventors {{Compu-bio-stub