Gates Stepping Down

Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates has transferred his Chief Software Architect role to Ray Ozzie and will slowly transition out of his day-to-day duties over the next two years. Although Ozzie and other senior technical leaders such as Craig Mundie and David Vaskevich will provide expert technical advice across the company, some of Gates’s traditional roles will be difficult to fill, particularly his roles as final arbiter of technical disputes across divisions and captain of the company’s overall technical direction. After June 2008, Gates’ primary involvement with the company will be his continuing role as chairman of Microsoft’s board of directors.

Changing of the Guard

Gates announced his move on June 15, 2006, but suggested that he’d been thinking of taking a smaller role at Microsoft for some time. The announcement was another step in Gates’s steady disengagement from full-time management at Microsoft: he gave up significant control over day-to-day operations at Microsoft when Steve Ballmer took over as CEO in Jan. 2000 and although the two reportedly had some disagreements about decision-making early in Ballmer’s tenure, Ballmer has had the final word on all major business decisions—including organizational changes, divisional budgets and headcount, acquisitions, and operations—for the last several years.