C harles Simonyi is a Hungarian-American computer scientist and software architect who was a key early employee at Microsoft and the lead developer of its dominant Microsoft Office suite of applications. Born in Budapest, he left Hungary as a teenager and eventually earned a PhD in computer science from Stanford University. He worked at the legendary Xerox PARC before being hired by Bill Gates in 1981 to lead Microsoft's new application software group.

At Microsoft, Simonyi oversaw the creation of Word and Excel, the programs that would become the foundation of Microsoft Office and the company's most profitable products. He pioneered the concept of 'metaprogramming', and his notational system became known as 'Hungarian notation'. He left Microsoft in 2002 to found his own company, Intentional Software, which was later acquired by Microsoft. A passionate space enthusiast, he has used his immense wealth to become a two-time space tourist, flying to the International Space Station aboard Russian Soyuz rockets. He is also a major philanthropist.