Reports coming in indicate that renowned billionaire Bill Gates had to stand down from his role at Microsoft because of a relationship with an employee.
It is alleged that members of Microsoft’s board hired a law firm to investigate an internal case after a female Microsoft engineer said in 2019 she had had a sexual relationship with the billionaire. Gates then resigned from the Microsoft board on March 13, 2020.
This is according to The Wall Street Journal, which explains that some board members didn’t think it was suitable for Gates to stay on as a director at that time and that he resigned before the investigation was completed.
“There was an affair almost 20 years ago which ended amicably,” a Gates spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal. “His decision to transition off the board was in no way related to this matter. In fact, he had expressed an interest in spending more time on his philanthropy starting several years earlier.”
The New York Times have also published a report about Gates, claiming that “in some circles, Bill Gates had also developed a reputation for questionable conduct in work-related settings”.
Now that he is going through his divorce with Melinda French Gates, his behaviour is under fresh scrutiny and the New York Times are reporting that his wife was unhappy with his behaviour long before they reached the decision to split.
