Gabe Logan Newell, commonly known by his nickname Gaben (/ˈɡeɪbˈɛn/), is an American computer programmer and businessman best known as the co-founder of the video game development and digital distribution company Valve. Born in Colorado, he attended Harvard University in the early 1980s, but dropped out and worked for Microsoft, where he worked as a producer for some of the early Windows operating systems.