“Bill Gates said Thursday he will transition out of a day-to-day role at the company he co-founded to spend more time on global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The company announced a two-year transition to ensure that there is a smooth transfer of Gates’ daily responsibilities, and said that after July 2008 Gates would continue to serve as the company’s chairman and an adviser on key development projects.
“This was a hard decision for me,” Gates said in a statement. “I’m very lucky to have two passions that I feel are so important and so challenging. As I prepare for this change, I firmly believe the road ahead for Microsoft is as bright as ever.”
Chief Technical Officer Ray Ozzie will immediately assume the title of chief software architect and begin working with Gates on all technical and product oversight responsibilities, Microsoft said. Similarly, Chief Technical Officer Craig Mundie will immediately take the new title of chief research and strategy officer and will work with Gates on the company’s research and incubation efforts. Mundie also will partner with general counsel Brad Smith to guide Microsoft’s intellectual property and technology policy efforts, Microsoft said.”- CNN News
Wow this was some really suprising news, caught me off guard but it’s all over foxnews/cnn they are all covering the conference, as it is we knew he has been trying to get away from Microsoft for a while but came back to make sure that Vista and the company in general went where it was supposed to go. His latest announcement that he will take 2 years seems like a smooth move. It will allow him to get a team trained to take over the different things he takes care of. Bill Gates isn’t microsoft but he has been a figure head of microsoft for a very long time so it will be interesting to see how the market reacts.
In the end it is a shift but nothing that will drastically shift Microsofts focus’s, over the next 2 years i’m sure Microsofts long term goals and paths will be set into action and with Vista and Vista Server out the door it’s a perfect time for the transition to happen. But then again he will still be Chairman and advisor, so really he’ll always be part of Microsoft. I really respect his foundation and this just shows how dedicated the man is to improving the world’s health and education.
Source: CNNNews
