APPARENTLY Bill Gates had received warnings from two company executives regarding his actions by sending inappropriate messages to female employees via email
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, this happened 10 years before he left Microsoft’s board.
Rumors about the Microsoft founder’s affair with a female employee were also investigated by the board.
Quoting The Verge page, Tuesday (19/10/2021), when he was still an employee at Microsoft and served as chairman of the board, Gates and a female employee exchanged “teasing” emails and proposed to the employee.
Gates was already married by then. When confronted by two company executives, Gates reportedly did not deny saying he would stop the interaction.
The executives alerted several members of Microsoft’s board, but the board ultimately decided that because there was no physical interaction between the woman and Gates, no further action needed to be taken.
A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the accuracy of the report, but did not provide further comment.
But company spokesman Frank Shaw told The Wall Street Journal that in 2008, the company became aware of the exchange of emails that took place in 2007.
The employee made no complaints about the incident, Shaw told the Journal.
He described the email as tempting but not sexual and said Gates had discussed meeting with employees outside of work.
A spokesman for Gates provided a statement to The Verge that differed from the company’s account.
“These claims are false, recycling rumors from sources with no direct knowledge, and in some cases have a significant conflict of interest,” he said.
In 2019, several Microsoft board members suggested that Gates resign while an investigation into an alleged affair with an employee was underway.
Gates resigned from the board in March 2020, before the investigation was complete. The employee reportedly wrote in a letter to the board that he had years of sexual relations with Gates.
He and Melinda French Gates, who have been married for 27 years, finalized their divorce last August.
(DRM)
–
