Gabe Logan Newell (born November 3, 1962), commonly known by his nickname Gaben, is an American computer programmer and businessman best known as the co-founder of the video game development and digital distribution company Valve Corporation. Born in Colorado, he attended Harvard University in the early 1980s, but dropped out and soon went to work for the American technology company Microsoft, where he spent the next decade working as a producer for some of their early Windows operating systems.