Reed to Retire from Board

One of the original members of Microsoft’s board of directors, William Gary Reed, Jr., will not seek reelection at the company’s 2004 shareholders’ meeting on Nov. 9. Reed is the former chairman of Simpson Timber and a board member of several other companies based in Washington state (where Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters is located), including Washington Mutual, Paccar, and Safeco. He joined the board in 1987, shortly after Microsoft went public, and is credited with helping to smooth differences between Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates in 2000, after Ballmer took over from Gates as CEO. At this time, the board has no intention of replacing Reed.

Reed currently serves on two board committees: the audit committee, which oversees accounting practices, and the compensation committee, which ensures that executive compensation is in line with industry standards. Charles Noski, vice president and chief financial officer of Northrop Grumman and former vice chairman of AT&T, will replace Reed as the chairman of the board’s audit committee, and Ann McLaughlin Korologos, head of the Aspen institute and former U.S. Secretary of Labor, will join the audit committee. Microsoft has not yet announced a replacement for Reed on the compensation committee.