William Nelson Joy was born on the 8th November 1954, in Farmington Hills, Michigan USA, and is a computer scientist and software developer, who is probably best recognized for being one of the founders of Sun Microsystems, as well as the chief scientist at the firm. He is also known for developing BSD UNIX, and the vi text editor. His career has been active since the late 1970s.
So, have you ever wondered how rich Bill Joy is, as of early 2017? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that Bill counts the total sum of his net worth at the impressive amount of $1.5 billion, which has been accumulated through his successful career in the IT business industry.
Bill Joy Net Worth $1.5 Billion
Bill Joy was raised in the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills by his father, William Joy, who worked as a school-vice director, and his mother, Ruth Joy. Upon matriculation at the age of 16, he enrolled at the University of Michigan, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. Afterwards, he continued his education at the University of California, Berkley, earning a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1979.
Bill’s career began during his senior year, as he was hired by Fabry’s Computer Systems Research Group CSRG, where he was the original designer of the UNIX operating system for Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). Soon, he developed the vi, ex and csh text editors, and since then his career has only gone upwards, as well as his net worth.
Subsequently, in 1982 Bill co-founded Sun Microsystems, together with Andreas von Bechtolsheim, Scott McNealy, and Vinod Khosla; the company was designed to create a high-powered version of UNIX for a personal desktop-computer workstation – Bill has also worked as the chief scientist until 2003. They created such projects as the Network File System (NFS), the Solaris operating system, the Java programming language, among others, all of which added a considerable amount to his net worth.
To speak further about his career, Bill is also one of the founders of HighBAR Ventures – a venture capital company – alongside Roy Thiele-Sardiña and Andreas von Bechtolsheim, which also increased his net worth by a large margin. In 2005 he was named as a partner in another venture company, called Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, making several investments in various technology companies, so further increasing his wealth.
Additionally to his career as a computer scientist, Bill gained popularity through his article entitled “Why The Future Doesn’t Need Us” (2000) about nano-technology, robotics and genetic engineering, which was published in “Wired Magazine”, which also contributed to his net worth.
Thanks to his accomplishments, Bill won a Grace Murray Hopper Award in 1986 for his work on the Berkeley UNIX Operating System, and later, he was inducted into the Computer History Museum as a Fellow for the same project, and for co-founding the Sun Microsystems.
Speaking about his personal life, Bill Joy is married to Shannon, with whom he has four children. Their current residence is in Aspen, Colorado.
