Robert Gaskins was one of the creators of

PowerPoint Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program, created by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin at a software company named Forethought, Inc. It was released on April 20, 1987, initially for Macintosh computers only. Microsoft acquired PowerPoi ...

, and an expert and author on the

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

of the

English concertina The English concertina is a member of the concertina family of free-reed musical instruments. Invented in England in 1829, it was the first instrument of what would become the concertina family. It is a fully chromatic instrument, having buttons ...

Education and professional work

Gaskins was educated in

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, and subsequently did interdisciplinary graduate study in literature and computing. In the early 1980s Gaskins worked five years as manager of computer science research at

Bell Northern Research Bell-Northern Research (BNR) was a telecommunications research and development company established In 1971 when Bell Canada and Northern Electric combined their R&D organizations. It was jointly owned by Bell Canada and Northern Telecom. BNR ...

, an international telecommunications R&D laboratory in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

. Subsequently, he joined

Forethought, Inc. Forethought, Inc. was a computer software company, best known as developers of what is now Microsoft PowerPoint. History In late 1983, Rob Campbell and Taylor Pohlman founded Forethought, Inc in order to develop object-oriented bit-mapped applica ...

, where the development of PowerPoint was begun. Gaskins was the entrepreneur behind the

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped * Photograph ...

, later known as ''Microsoft PowerPoint'' after acquisition by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

in the early 1990s. Lee Gomes wrote in ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'': Many original documents written by Robert Gaskins during the early history of PowerPoint's strategy and development are online for public access. After leaving Microsoft, Gaskins became somewhat renowned as an expert on the

of the

References

External links

* American computer businesspeople Microsoft employees Nortel employees University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Southern California alumni Los Angeles City College alumni 1943 births Living people 20th-century American inventors {{Compu-bio-stub