Microsoft on Friday announced that co-founder Bill Gates has left its board of directors to devote more time to philanthropy.
The
64-year-old stopped being involved in day-to-day operations at the firm
more than a decade ago, turning his attention to the foundation he
launched with his wife, Melinda.
Gates served as chairman of
Microsoft’s board of directors until early in 2014 and has now stepped
away entirely, according to the Redmond-based technology giant.
“It’s
been a tremendous honour and privilege to have worked with and learned
from Bill over the years,” Microsoft chief executive and company veteran
Satya Nadella said in a release.
“Bill founded our company with a
belief in the democratizing force of software and a passion to solve
society’s most pressing challenges; and Microsoft and the world are
better for it.”
Nadella said Microsoft would continue to benefit from
Gates’ “technical passion and advice” in his continuing role as a
technical advisor.
“I am grateful for Bill’s friendship and look forward to continuing to work alongside him,” Nadella said.
Computing and compassion
Gates
left his CEO position in 2000, handing the company reins to Steve
Ballmer to devote more time to his charitable foundation.
He gave up the role of chairman at the same time Nadella became Microsoft’s third CEO in 2014.
Regularly
listed among the world’s richest people, William H. Gates was a
geeky-looking young man when he and Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft in
1975.
Gates grew up in Seattle with two sisters. His father William
was an attorney and his late mother Mary was a schoolteacher and
chairwoman of United Way International.
He began programming computers as a 13-year-old student, and fell in love with the machines.
Among
the tales told about Gates is that while working on school computers,
he tinkered with programming to put himself in classes made up mostly of
girls.
With his parents’ blessing, Gates dropped out of Harvard to start “Micro-soft” with his late childhood friend Allen.
A
key move was to focus on licensing software to computer makers in
numerous “partnerships” that resulted in affordable machines being
available to the masses.
As the personal computer market grew,
Microsoft became the world’s top software company. Its virtual monopoly
led to a much-publicized antitrust trial, in which the company managed
to avert a break-up but had to endure years of government monitoring.
Gates
went on to turn his attention from software to fighting disease and
other humanitarian challenges with his wife, under the auspices of the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
“This move is not surprising to
the Street as Gates has continued to focus more on his myriad of
philanthropies across the globe over the past decade,” Wedbush analyst
Daniel Ives said in a note to investors.
“Gates is a historic figure in the technology world and his legacy at Microsoft will be felt in Redmond for decades to come.”
