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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

#81
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During a local non-profit board election I once voted in, one of the candidates' position statements was a single sentence: I may not have a lot skills, but I'm really good at writing checks.

Did they win?

I’d be asking if they bounced.

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

#82
post #20

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…

Kind of odd, being an employee there, I've never heard of eleven of the twelve board members before.

That is pretty common. Board members are not involved in day-to-day operations of a company.

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

#83
post #77
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the board members seem to be partners at various investment firms. Many of them don't seem to even remotely tech people. It's kind of sad that the Microsoft board lacks any external visionaries.

At a huge company like Microsoft the board isn't really a great place for visionaries. It's much better at things like helping the CEO understand the thoughts of large institutional investors that provide Microsoft with capital. A visionary is better suited as a "special advisor" to someone... like the role that Bill Gates is keeping.

At the same time, if the function of the board is to keep the ship from drifting too far off course, or to handle certain problems the company itself seems incapable of or oblivious to (mass cognitive dissonance) it could be useful to have a Jobsesque pitchman who can get a board to be accepting of radical risk taking. A board might lean conservative and risk averse, and sometimes companies need moments of extreme risk. Usually that jump takes a persuader.

Being able to sit in on board meetings, and talk during them would be enough, not necessarily having a vote, maybe thats a special adviser?

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

#84
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 typicall…

> Usually directors will interact with the board Did you mean "executives"? Directors and The Board are the same thing; it's The Board of Directors.

Not all directors are on the board, but sure you can say executives or whatever. That's probably more accurate.

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

#85
post #44
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kind of odd, being an employee there, I've never heard of eleven of the twelve board members before.

Most of the board members seem to be partners at various investment firms. Many of them don't seem to even remotely tech people. It's kind of sad that the Microsoft board lacks any external visionaries.

It actually makes a lot of sense. Technical people sometimes think that the higher up you go the bigger the decisions, but normally decision making peters off around the Director level. Above that and it's really about how to keep the company going as a company, or in other words the business of maintaining a structure of people that continues to survive within the regulatory context that the company operates within. And for a large multinational company like Microsoft, that's an enormously big deal. You're generally lucky if the CEO has any technical capabilities at all.

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

#86

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…

You have to wonder what a suit from Pepsi has to offer to a technology company.

Pepsi sells sugar water that is causing obesity at scale. Pepsis most recent investment is a $4 billion energy brand called Rockstar.

That romance between Jobs and the Pepsi CEO was in hindsight also a Hindenburg idea.

What happend to we are changing the world with technology?

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

#87
post #86

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…

You have to wonder what a suit from Pepsi has to offer to a technology company. Pepsi sells sugar water that is causing obesity at scale. Pepsis most recent investment is a $4 billion energy brand called Rockstar. That romance between Jobs and the Pepsi CEO was in hindsight also a Hindenburg idea. What happend to we are changing the world with technology?

Business is business. No one on the board is debugging C++. Most of what they talk about is financials.

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

#88
post #86

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…

You have to wonder what a suit from Pepsi has to offer to a technology company. Pepsi sells sugar water that is causing obesity at scale. Pepsis most recent investment is a $4 billion energy brand called Rockstar. That romance between Jobs and the Pepsi CEO was in hindsight also a Hindenburg idea. What happend to we are changing the world with technology?

The Pepsi exec at Apple was CEO, the top executive of the company. This one is a mere board member, boards don't run companies.

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

#89
post #54

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…

I really despise the US habit of worshipping of the wealthy.

I'm pretty sure Bill Gates is worshipped for more than his wealth. Growing up, he was the stereotypical wunderkind and people would say about smart kids "going to be the next Bill Gates". Come on, I was there to type in Microserf and M$ when Microsoft was fucking everyone with the SCO bullshit. That was infuriating, as was all the crap around FAT and NTFS. But you rarely find the combo of technologist and smart businessman.

For all the crap he did, ultimately the Gates Foundation is awesome and it's set up in such a way that it doesn't last forever. All reasons to admire the fellow.

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

#90

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.)

Is anyone actually advocating for diversity of socioeconomic status on boards? Board members need to be highly skilled and experienced in business, which I would guess correlates very well with wealth.
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