Charles Simonyi

Charles Simonyi — co-inventor of the first WYSIWYG text editor

Charles Simonyi is a high-tech pioneer, philanthropist and space traveler. The co-creator of the first WYSIWYG text editor (Bravo), he was the chief architect of Microsoft Word, Excel and other widely used applications.

Simonyi earned his PhD in computer science from Stanford. He is founder and CTO of Intentional Software, a maker of software to support idea generation and presentation.

He was the fifth space tourist and the first ever tourist to fly twice. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, correspondent member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He and his wife, Lisa, have made numerous philanthropic contributions supporting the arts and sciences, and other charitable causes worldwide.