Bill Gates left Microsoft board after relationship with female employee probed
Bill Gates left the Microsoft board in 2020 as the board pursued an investigation into the billionaire's romantic relationship with a female employee, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
"Microsoft Corp. board members decided that Bill Gates needed to step down from its board in 2020 as they pursued an investigation into the billionaire's prior romantic relationship with a female Microsoft employee that was deemed inappropriate," the Journal reported, citing people close to the matter.
According to the spokeswoman, Gates left Microsoft to focus more on his philanthropic organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Gates and his wife Melinda, who co-founded their charity two decades ago to battle global poverty and disease, announced their divorce on May 3 after 27 years of marriage.
A spokesperson for Microsoft told AFP that the company was alerted in the second half of 2019 that "Bill Gates sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000. A committee of the Board reviewed the concern, aided by an outside law firm, to conduct a thorough investigation."
