Name: Henry Ross Perot

Born: June 27, 1930, in Texarkana, Texas

Death: July 9, 2019 (Age: 89)

  • Founded EDS (Electronic Data Systems) in 1962, sold the company to General Motors in 1984, and founded Perot Systems in 1988. Perot Systems was bought by Dell for $3.9 billion in 2009.
  • In 1957, Perot became a salesman for International Business Machines. He quickly became a top employee, filling his year’s sales quota in two weeks.
  • After Steve Jobs lost the original power struggle at Apple, he moved on to found NeXT. Jobs’ angel investor was Perot, who invested over 20 million dollars in the company. Perot believed in Jobs, and did not want to miss out on an opportunity as he had when he declined to invest in Bill Gates’ fledging Microsoft.

Significant publications

  • United We Stand (1992).

Honors and awards

  • Distinguished Eagle Scout Award (1942).
  • Made an Honorary Green Beret (2009).
  • Appointed an honorary chairman of The OSS Society (2009).
  • West Point awarded him with the distinguished Sylvanus Thayer Award (2009).
  • Inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame (1988).

Quotes

“Eagles don’t flock, you have to find them one at a time.”