You are the proton of my electron: love and marriage in IT

Today is February 14th, which means all progressive humanity is celebrating Computer Day . Less advanced relatives honor St. Valentine . We offer to take the best from both sides. Under the cut the history of people from the world of high technology, once found each other.

Bill and Melinda Gates

Their story is a typical office romance. The future Mrs. Gates grew up in Dallas in the family of an aerospace engineer and a housewife. Melinda graduated from Duke University, for five years she received a bachelor's degree in programming and economics and an MBA degree. In 1987, she joined Microsoft as a product manager. Bill Gates once drew attention to the clever employee and called her for a meeting once met at the parking lot. Bill and Melinda met for seven years before they got married in 1994 in Hawaii. By the way, Western journalists argued that the marriage contract between the spouses guaranteed payments of $ 10 million for each child born by Melinda. The couple have three children. The couple founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation . He has $ 41.3 billion in money, which his spouses send to fight polio and malaria, to experiment in education and to help people in Africa and migrants.
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Steven and Lauren Jobs

Lauren Powell Jobs is the second wife of Steve Jobs and the main heir to his fortune. They met in 1990, after the famous speech of Apple’s founder at the Stanford School of Business. Jobs himself talked about his meeting with his future wife: “ I was sitting in the car in the parking lot, the key was in the ignition lock, and then I thought,“ if this day was the last in my life, would I have spent it at a business meeting, or with this woman? ” Then I got out of the car, crossed the parking lot and asked her if she wanted to have dinner with me. She agreed, we went to the city, and since then have not parted ... ".

Steve Jobs married Lauren Powell on March 18, 1991. The wedding was led by a Zen monk, mentor and close friend of the groom Kobun Tino Otogawa. The couple have a son and two daughters. Jobs also has an illegitimate daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, from a relationship with artist Chrisann Brennan. Initially, he denied his paternity, but later recognized him. After the death of Steve Jobs, the public and the media are paying more and more attention to Lauren’s personal life. From her husband, she inherited $ 6 billion, taking 42nd place in the list of the richest Americans according to Forbes magazine. Many note the active donations of Lauren Jobs to charitable organizations and to the development of social and educational projects.

Linus and Tuve Torvalds

Linux papa has happily married his second half for over 20 years. They met in the fall of 1993, when Linus was 24 years old. Tuva, by the way, is Finland’s six-time karate champion. The couple have three daughters: Patricia Miranda, Daniel Yolanda and Celeste Amanda.

Jack Ma and Zhang Ing

Together with the future founder of Chinese Internet giant Alibaba, Jack Ma Zhang Ing, she studied at the Hangzhou Chinese Pedagogical Institute. They formalized their relationship shortly after receiving diplomas in the late 80s. But at first they did not think about business - they wanted to realize themselves in pedagogy. Later both were among the top ten teachers in Hangzhou. In 1995, left the profession for the sake of business. Ma launched his first online company, the China Yellow Pages Directory. And four years later, it was Alibaba’s time. Zhang supported him: she worked in the company as a political consultant. True, she herself admits that she basically helped her husband by preparing meals for his incessant meetings with partners.
Zhang never hid her prudence. She says that Jack Ma and in her youth did not seem like a handsome man to her, but immediately realized that he could do something that the handsome men could not.

The demanding of his wife all his life spurs Ma. A couple of years after the launch of Alibaba, she asked how much the company earned. Ma in response raised only his index finger. Zhang clarified: “10 million yuan ($ 1.6 million)?” Ma said no. Then Zhang suggested that it is about 100 million yuan. But Ma did not confirm this either. He said: 1 million yuan ($ 160,000). Zhang froze with a displeased grimace, but when Ma added “a day,” she was relieved. Until 2002, she worked in the top management of Alibaba, and then her husband braced up and told her that the children needed her more than the company. Becoming a housewife was a blow to her, but over time she made her husband's decision and now she realizes herself exclusively in the kitchen.

Eugene and Natalya Kaspersky

This duet can no longer be considered a couple, because they have not been together for a long time. They have different families, different businesses. Nevertheless, this is an excellent example of how like-minded people can work wonders in business and in life. Yevgeny Kaspersky met Natalia at a holiday home in January 1987, when she was 20 years old. Six months later they were married. In 1989, when she was in her fifth year at the institute, Natalya Kasperskaya gave birth to her first child, Maxim, and in 1991, her second son, Ivan. After six years of maternity leave, Natalia went to the position of an ordinary seller in the company of her husband. Over time, having consistently made her way up the career ladder, she took the post of general director. Later, all rights to the company were transferred to Eugene Kaspersky. The couple divorced in 1998.

Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan

The first meeting of Mark and Priscilla took place more than 10 years ago at a student party at Harvard University. The couple met in line at the toilet. As Priscilla herself admitted, Mark Zuckerberg looked at that moment like a real nerd, and in his hand he had a glass with an IT joke on beer printed on it. They met for almost 10 years before formally legalizing their relationship. Today, the couple have a child. The family does not hide the fact that before Priscilla managed to become pregnant, they lost the child three times. Mark himself published such information on his page on Facebook. He explained his openness by the fact that, looking at their example, other couples who have not yet managed to have children will not lose hope and they will succeed.

I would also like to mention Pavel Durov and his other half, but the information about the personal life of the founder of Vkontakte and Telegram is so contradictory that it only remains to sigh and repeat the eternal: “ Durov, return the wall .” Well, as they say, love each other!