William "Bill" Millard (born 1932) is the founder of IMS Associates, makers of the

IMSAI IMS Associates, Inc., or IMSAI, was a microcomputer company, responsible for one of the earliest successes in personal computing, the IMSAI 8080. The company was founded in 1973 by William Millard and was based in San Leandro, California. Their f ...

series of computers and the electronics retailer ComputerLand. He is credited as the "father" of modern computer retailing. He has also been called one of the world's most elusive

tax exile A tax exile is a person who leaves a country to avoid the payment of income tax or other taxes. The term refers to an individual who already owes money to the tax authorities or wishes to avoid being liable in the future for taxation at what they ...

s. William H. Millard worked for IBM and, later, as the head of data processing for the city and county of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. In 1969, together with his wife, Millard started a software publisher company called Systems Dynamics, which went bankrupt in 1972. In 1973, Millard founded IMS Associates, which is most famous for

IMSAI 8080 The IMSAI 8080 was an early microcomputer released in late 1975, based on the Intel 8080 and later 8085 and S-100 bus. It was a clone of its main competitor, the earlier MITS Altair 8800. The IMSAI is largely regarded as the first "clone" mi ...

microcomputer first shipped in late 1975. By 1977, IMSAI's product line included printers, terminals, floppy diskettes and software. To finance rapidly growing operations, IMSAI pledged 20% of its stock as convertible note in exchange for $250,000 from

investment firm An investment company is a financial institution principally engaged in holding, managing and investing securities. These companies in the United States are regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and must be registered under t ...

Marriner & Co. In 1976, in partnership with John Martin-Musumeci, IMS launched a successful computer reseller

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

ComputerLand. In 1982, ComputerLand's sales reached over $400 million and by 1984 the venture reached over $1 billion in revenue. Legal troubles from the failure of IMS, centered largely on a convertible note from the Marriner partnership that was later sold to a group of investors, led to a lawsuit in which Millard lost a substantial portion of his stake in ComputerLand. In the late 1980s, Millard relinquished control of ComputerLand. In 1987, he sold ComputerLand to E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co. for about $200 million. He and his family moved to Saipan where he removed himself from the public view. In September 2011, after 20 years, he was found living in the Cayman Islands.

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* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Millard, William American computer businesspeople 1932 births Living people