In 1983, Gates received a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from
California State University, Northridge and then completed the
MBA program at
Pepperdine University in 1990 at the age of 27 while co-founding his first company,
Xircom, with fellow entrepreneur Kirk Mathews.
Xircom created the industry's first product Ethernet Pocket Adapter which allowed notebook computers to connect to Ethernet
LANs, along with the industry's first Type III
PC Card called the RealPort that allowed users to connect Ethernet cables and phone cables directly to the notebook without the use of
dongles. Gates served as
Xircom’s president after its launch in November 1988, became
chief executive officer in 1991, and in 1995, he became
chairman of the company. In March 2001, after 13 years in operation, Gates negotiated the sale of
Xircom to
Intel Corporation for US$748 million. Gates served as vice president and
general manager of mobile communications at
Intel and then went on to co-found
Xirrus, a
Wi-Fi technology company, in early 2004 with Patrick Parker and Steve DeGennaro. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of Xirrus until June 2012, at which point he assumed the role of Executive Chairman. Xirrus designs and sells
wireless networking equipment called
Wi-Fi Arrays based on the
IEEE standards
802.11a,
802.11b,
802.11g, and
802.11n. 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. Dirk appeared on the
Dylan Ratigan show on
MSNBC in September 2010 and in January 2011, Gates was featured in a Kym McNicholas segment on
ForbesTV. He has also given countless speeches and presentations on Wi-Fi including the
keynote address at
Interop New York 2010. Gates has been a member of the
CSUN Foundation Board, has served as
Chairman of the
Viewpoint School Board of
Trustees, and is also a member of the
Pepperdine Board of Visitors. ==Personal life==