John R. Opel

John R. Opel ( born January 5, 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri; † 3 November 2011) was an American manager in the PC industry.

John R. Opel was from 1974 to 1983 and President from 1981 to 1985 CEO of IBM. Through the charity United Way, he met Mary Maxwell Gates, know the mother of Bill Gates. This had to be used in IBM influence the decision of MS- DOS as the operating system for the IBM PC.