
Michael J. Saylor is the co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of MicroStrategy, a software company specializing in business intelligence, enterprise reporting, and online analytical processing. The son of an Air Force sergeant, he spent his childhood living around the world, and graduated high school at the top of his class. In 1987, Saylor earned his degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics and Technology from MIT on an ROTC Scholarship, but a benign heart murmur kept him from becoming a pilot. While at MIT, he took a "system dynamics theory" class, which gave him the initial idea of a computer modeling business with non-linear mathematics. After graduating from college, he worked as a venture manager at DuPont. The time he spent creating computer simulations at MIT prepared him for his new job at DuPont, where he constructed models to simulate business interactions. Saylor went onto co-found MicroStrategy in 1989, at the age of 24, with a consulting contract from DuPont, which provided him w