Gates (born June 25, 1961 in Fort Wayne, Indiana) is an American businessman, founder and chief executive officer of two companies, Xircom and Xirrus.
Gates served as vice president and general manager of mobile communications at Intel[5] and then went on to co-found Xirrus, a Wi-Fi technology company, in early 2004 with Patrick Parker and Steve DeGennaro.
In 1992, Gates was honored as High Technology Entrepreneur of the Year for the Greater Los Angeles area and in 1994, made Forbes Magazine's Whiz Kid list of the five youngest CEOs of the Best small Companies in America.
[citation needed] Dirk appeared on the Dylan Ratigan show on MSNBC in September 2010[6] and in January 2011, Gates was featured in a Kym McNicholas segment on ForbesTV.
[4] In 1997, Dirk Gates donated $1 million (apiece) of his personal funds to CSUN and Pepperdine University to express his gratitude for the knowledge he acquired during his schooling.