The Making of the Mogul

Grove's speech is only one of a long list of accomplishments and awards he has received over the span of his remarkable career, which began when he emigrated to America in 1956.

Born in 1936 in Hungary as Andras Grof, Grove and his family, who were Jewish, survived World War II by assuming a fake name and hiding in Budapest with a Christian family. When his country was invaded again by the Soviet tanks, Grof changed his name again to Andrew Grove and fled to come to America to pursue his dreams of finding an education and a career.

He blew through the City College of New York (CCNY) and then the University of California-Berkeley, amazing his professors with his desire to constantly sharpen his intellect.

His ambition landed him a job at Fairchild Semiconductor, a growing California company that had a reputation for snatching rising engineers. But Grove did not stay with Fairchild long--the lab provided him with a much better connection.

His boss, the famous chemist Gordon Moore, discovered the secret value of silicon. In 1965, he and his colleagues discovered that little pieces of the element could store and transfer electronic data without emitting energy that would overheat, and ultimately destroy, any computer of practical size.

Computer scientists had been plagued for years by overheated transistors that regularly threatened to explode, and Moore had the solution. In 1968 he created a company to manufacture silicon devices which could conduct electricity without explosive side effects. He called the company Integrated Electronics.

Moore knew that these devices, which he dubbed microchips, would redefine the way people used computers--and change the way the world operated forever. Moore also realized that he needed bright and capable young minds to help him, and so brought along his best colleagues from Fairchild.