Biography: Gabe Logan Newell (born November 3, 1962), also known by his nickname Gaben, is the co-founder and current managing director of the independent game development company Valve Software. Newell was educated at Davis Senior High School and attended Harvard University in the early 1980s before dropping out to join Microsoft, where he helped create the first iterations of the Microsoft Windows operating system. Together with Mike Harrington, he left Microsoft in 1996 to found Valve. He has a net worth of approximately US $5 billion. He is married to Lisa Newell and has two sons.