TV Schedule

Bill Gates steps down, will focus on philanthropy


  3. samanthadian
  4. related topics
When future historians put pen to paper, finger to laptop, or who-knows-what to who-knows-what device, Bill Gates will be up there as one of the most influential business leaders and philanthropists of the modern age, a John D Rockefeller for the turn of the 21st century.


Future generations will balance the monopolist against the philanthropist, the copycat against the visionary. With the specs, the jumpers, and the nasal voice, Gates was never going to pull off a Rockefeller-esque swagger, but this is, after all, the era in which the geek inherited the earth. Like the legendary oilman a century before him, he saw a new technology, shaped it, dominated it, milked it – and then quit to devote the rest of his life to giving it all away.

Today, Gates is retiring from his day-to-day role at Microsoft, the company he founded 33 years ago. As far as titles go, he is merely swapping "executive chairman" for "non-executive chairman". But he is also swapping, finally, the role of technology-industry pioneer and hard-edged business leader for a new role as the world's philanthropist-in-chief, spending his remaining days guiding the work of his $39bn charitable foundation.
samanthadian

Add your response

Login/Registration is required to add a response.