WASHINGTON: Bill Gates left the Microsoft board in 2020 as the board pursued an investigation into the billionaire’s romantic relationship with a female employee, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. “Microsoft Corp. board members decided that Bill Gates needed to step down from its board in 2020 as they pursued an investigation into the billionaire’s prior romantic relationship with a female Microsoft employee that was deemed inappropriate,” the Journal reported, citing people close to the matter. According to the spokeswoman, Gates left Microsoft to focus more on his philanthropic organisation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. A spokesperson for Microsoft told AFP that the company was alerted in the second half of 2019 that “Bill Gates sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000. His seat as board director, which he left in March 2020, was the last position that officially linked him to the company.

Source: Pakistan Today May 17, 2021 12:22 UTC