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Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

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Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#61

Post by vikramkr »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #27
vikramkr wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it is pretty diverse for a corporate board. About a third women, couple people of color including the CEO and chairman. That's well ahead of the curve.

Somewhat diverse by race and gender. Completely non-diverse in terms of socioeconomic status, which may have been jayzalowitz's point. (Or may not. Maybe there wasn't a point except some drive-by snark. It's hard to tell with a post like that.)

By definition it's not going to be diverse for the economically part of socioeconomic since no matter where people began if they're on Microsoft's board they're doing quite well. In terms of where they began, looking up a few of them real quick, a couple of them are immigrants, a few of them (including the chairman) seem to have gone to public high schools and or universities. I won't deny that most of them didn't start out with head starts, and of course all of them are 1%ers now probably by board pay alone, but this isn't a super homogeneous board, especially compared to the rest of corporate america

Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#62

Post by vikramkr »

syedkarim wrote: post #41
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somewhat diverse by race and gender. Completely non-diverse in terms of socioeconomic status, which may have been jayzalowitz's point. (Or may not. Maybe there wasn't a point except some drive-by snark. It's hard to tell with a post like that.)

Do any Fortune 500 boards have diversity in socioeconomic status?

I think economically they'll have boards with people that started out at different points in life, probably vastly skewed towards people that had head start of some form or another, and you can probably tease apart economic diversity through figuring out where people started. In terms of in the present day though, the pay for being on the board is alone enough to knock these members into the 1%, and by definition they've succeeded in the current system, so I don't know if it's physically possible to have that sort of diversity

Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#63

Post by staticassertion »

sytelus wrote: post #53
chx wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually you don't. The board is not something that directly affects employees lives.

They do. In a healthy company board is a sort of dampening force that steers CEO away from bad moves and advice him/her so that opportunities are not missed. Elizabeth Holms would be at much better place if board had excercised its authority. They are legally required to be part of almost all big decisions that are being made and they have the authority to at least bring in stockholder vote if they lose confidence in…

I think what they meant was that the board does not usually interact a lot with employees, or in a directly employee-facing way. Usually directors will interact with the board, both in terms of informing them and soliciting advice, and that turns into company direction, which funnels down through multiple layers before getting to ICs.

Few people can have more impact on the company than a board, but it's very typically abstracted away.

Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#64

Post by nradov »

thinkingkong wrote: post #16
chollida1 wrote: post #3

Also stepped down from the Berkshire board as well. Given that he stepped away from a day to day role in 2008 and then stepped down as the chairman in 2014, I'm guessing he's focusing on his foundation. He's still the 8th largest shareholder according to Bloomberg's records(103,000,000 share), which is pretty impressive given that the 7 entities above him are all funds. Incase you wanted to know who the remaining 12…

Whats the advantage or strategy behind having someone from Marriott?

Marriott is a typical example of the type of large corporate customers who buy a lot of Microsoft products and services. Having customers on the board is one way to help validate market strategy and gain insight into future IT purchasing trends.

Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#65

Post by burkaman »

darawk wrote: post #17
robertfw wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why on earth would he be the most qualified person for that?

Because he's been managing large scale responses to infectious diseases via his foundation for a decade or so now.

But he came into that position because he's rich, not because of any particular expertise, and he's been able to accomplish more than others for that same reason. He's done a lot of good, but there is not really any oversight into what his foundation does and no reason to believe he's doing the best possible job. He's just pouring a ton of money into a lot of very hard problems.

If I had to pick someone, I would probably go with the guy who's already done this exact job less than two years ago and has experience with both global health and government service: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Timothy_Ziemer

Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#66

Post by jrandm »

david-gpu wrote: post #33
jrandm wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for them, but I'd imagine an international hotel chain would have some unique views on things like travel trends.

...which are immediately relevant to the interests of Microsoft because...?

As a software giant Microsoft's products intersect most parts of most economies. A hotel chain has its own technology needs and has views of the technology needs of its customers.

Whether a high-placed member of Marriott has specific insights to Microsoft I don't know, but I don't think it takes much imagination to fill in hypothetical reasons the person could be helpful.

Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#67

Post by cpascal »

kube-system wrote: post #51
dave5104 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe someone with a medical degree? Gates can certainly bring some unique skills to the table if he was invited, but it seems like we should have an actual doctor leading the charge.

MDs are good at treating patients, but they're not necessarily good at leading people. Good leaders know how to draw on the expertise of others to organize a coordinated response... which the Gates Foundation has proved themselves very capable of doing, particularly with public health issues. The Gates Foundation employs lots of healthcare professionals. I'd highly suggest looking up some of the talks Gates has done…

Spot on.

Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#68

Post by ibaikov »

dave5104 wrote: post #38
tuna-piano wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Bill Gates is extremely competitive, he's a bulldog, he fights and wants to win against whatever. He built Microsoft into a Monopoly and is fighting hard (and doing a great job) against diseases. 2. Bill Gates looks at problems logically, finds missing links, and solves those links. Whether that is refrigeration for vaccines, getting useful data for diseases, etc. 3. Bill Gates knows a ton about diseases, epidemic…

Maybe someone with a medical degree? Gates can certainly bring some unique skills to the table if he was invited, but it seems like we should have an actual doctor leading the charge.

It's always mostly about business/decision making, once you surround yourself with competent people who you can trust - you don't need to be a world-class expert.

Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#69

Post by tuna-piano »

dave5104 wrote: post #38
tuna-piano wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Bill Gates is extremely competitive, he's a bulldog, he fights and wants to win against whatever. He built Microsoft into a Monopoly and is fighting hard (and doing a great job) against diseases. 2. Bill Gates looks at problems logically, finds missing links, and solves those links. Whether that is refrigeration for vaccines, getting useful data for diseases, etc. 3. Bill Gates knows a ton about diseases, epidemic…

Maybe someone with a medical degree? Gates can certainly bring some unique skills to the table if he was invited, but it seems like we should have an actual doctor leading the charge.

Doctors are people who are trained and have experience diagnosing and treating individual patients. I'm not sure why those skills are necessary for fighting an epidemic?

The person in charge of the epidemic will not be doing patient diagnosis and care. The person will be doing some aspects of: Logistics, managing a ton of people, political wrangling, PR/media relations, setting and achieving organizational goals.

Of course some disease and medical knowledge will be required, but not being an MD doesn't seem relevant.

Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#70

Post by WalterBright »

robertfw wrote: post #9
dcolkitt wrote: post #7

The optimist in me wants to believe that this means he's about to be appointed as the head of the national coronavirus response. There's probably no better qualified person in the world to manage the coordinated effort.

Why on earth would he be the most qualified person for that?

I'd have full confidence in Gates taking on such a role.
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