Bill Gates is stepping away from a day to day role at Microsoft to devote more time to his charity work.
Can we still pick on him?
UPDATE: A lot more detail coming out now. Washington Post has this.
Gates said he intends to keep his title as chairman "for the rest of my life" but he is giving up his job as chief software architect at the company he founded with Paul Allen 30 years ago. He will step down in July 2008, he said, to focus on global health and education goals at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
"With success, I have been given great wealth. And with great wealth comes great responsibility to give back to society, to see that those resources are put to work in the best possible way to help those in need," Gates told a group of reporters from the company's Redmond, Wash., headquarters this afternoon. "Obviously, this decision was a hard one for me to make. I'm very lucky to have two passions."
Gates and Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer immediately appointed several executives from within to be groomed as the company's next generation of top leaders. Gates said the company's chief technical officer Ray Ozzie, a recently hired leader at Microsoft, would immediately assume the title as chief software architect so that he could work along with Gates during the transition. Similarly, chief technical officer Craig Mundie will immediately take on the title of chief research and strategy officer to work with Gates on the company's research efforts.
I've done more than my share of cursing over the years at Microsoft. Still, I wish him luck. Hopefully some of that money I've sent him over the years will go to good causes.
