Hello, Bill!

by Brian Reich | 28 Jun 2008, 2:00am

Bill Gates retired as the head of Microsoft yesterday.   After 33 years leading the global software company he founded in his garage, he will now devote his full attention to philanthropy through the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Regardless of what you think about Microsoft, or Bill Gates personally, know that he’s a genius and the experience and perspective he now brings to the philanthropic world are significant.
What’s his secret?   What should we look for as a hint of how he’ll take his business experience and apply it further to his work around the globe?   The Seattle Times quoted Gates in his farewell speech to Microsoft, saying:

“My life’s work really is about software and working with incredible people,” Gates said with tears in his eyes at a gathering on the company’s Redmond campus. “And I love working with smart people.”

We should all be so lucky.

As he has done in the software industry for more than three decades, Bill Gates will not only do more and better things for philanthropy through his direct work, but he will fundamentally change the way foundations, non-profits, governments, and other institutions conduct their work through his leadership.   He has already create dnew models for how we address the most pressing health and other issues around the world and I am confident that more dramatic shifts are ahead.
So, Bill Gates, if you are listening — as you say goodbye to one career and begin another, I say “hello!”, and welcome (full-time now) to the world philanthropy.   I, for one, am very happy you are devoting your time, energy, and talents to these critically important causes and I look forward to the opportunity to work with you, and learn from your leadership, whenever and however, that opportunity presents itself.

TAGS : Gates Foundation Philanthropy