Guido van Rossum

# [](https://gvanrossum.github.io/images/index.html) Guido van Rossum - Brief Bio [](https://gvanrossum.github.io/images/index.html) > _Here's a brief bio that I send to people who ask me for_ > _one. You can also use either of the photos above: the one on the left_ > _was taken in 2006, the one on the right in 2019._ > _[Click](https://gvanrossum.github.io/images/index.html) for larger versions._ Guido van Rossum is the creator of the Python programming language. He grew up in the Netherlands and studied at the University of Amsterdam, where he graduated with a Master's Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science. His first job after college was as a programmer at CWI, where he worked on the ABC language, the Amoeba distributed operating system, and a variety of multimedia projects. During this time he created Python as a side project. He then moved to the United States to take a job at a non-profit research lab in Virginia, married a Texan, worked for several other startups, and moved to California. In 2005 he joined Google, where he obtained the rank of Senior Staff Engineer, and in 2013 he started working for Dropbox as a Principal Engineer. In October 2019 he retired. After a short retirement he joined Microsoft as Distinguished Engineer in 2020, which position he relinquished in 2026 to retire (again!). Until 2018 he was Python's BDFL (Benevolent Dictator For Life), and he is still deeply involved in the Python community. Guido and his family live in Silicon Valley, where they love hiking, biking and birding. ## Shorter: Guido van Rossum created Python in 1990 while working at CWI in Amsterdam. He was the language's BDFL until he stepped down in 2018. He has held various tech jobs, including Senior Staff Engineer at Google, Principal Engineer at Dropbox, and Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft. He is now retired. Born and raised in the Netherlands, he moved to the US in 1995 and currently lives with his family in the San Francisco Bay Area. Guido's home on the web is [http://www.python.org/~guido/](http://www.python.org/~guido/). [More photos](https://gvanrossum.github.io/images/index.html)

Details5

LocationSilicon Valley, California, United States

Company sitemicrosoft.com

UniversityUniversity of Amsterdam

Signal

Posts sparingly and mostly in service of the Python community. His public X account (@gvanrossum, joined Aug 2008, ~307.8K followers) is branded 'Python's BDFL-emeritus, Computer History Fellow' and points to python.org/~guido; the one durable personal announcement in recent years is the 2020 post 'retirement was boring' declaring his move to Microsoft's Developer Division. His personal site now states he is 'permanently retired,' so social activity is low and largely community-facing.

Notes3

• The arc IMO-1974-bronze to University of Amsterdam to CWI is one continuous Dutch mathematics track; he has never held a title outside mathematics/software, which is why the IMO medal is not trivia but the origin of the profile.Jul 1974
• Public footprint is unusually clean for a figure this famous: personal site, GitHub, X, Instagram all under the single handle 'gvanrossum', with no personal email or phone published - reachability runs through the Python community, not a contact page.2026
• Computer History Museum elected him a Fellow, and CWI (his old employer) still claims '25 years of Python' - institutional recognition from both the museum and the lab where Python was born keeps his legacy anchored in the Netherlands as much as Silicon Valley.2023