Left full-time role at Microsoft to focus on global health philanthropy
After a two-year gradual transition, Gates formally left his full-time role as Chief Software Architect at Microsoft to devote the majority of his working life to the Gates Foundation. He remained non-executive Chairman of the Board until 2014. Gates later described the transition as the hardest professional decision of his life, saying that the urgency of preventable disease and poverty made continuing as a software executive feel unjustifiable.
Source: https://news.microsoft.com/2008/06/27/bill-gates-transition/
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February 2026
Bill Gates Apologizes to Gates Foundation Staff at Town Hall Meeting Over Epstein Association
In February 2026, Bill Gates addressed Gates Foundation staff at an all-hands town hall meeting, apologizing for the distraction and reputational harm caused by renewed coverage of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein following the DOJ document release. According to attendees cited by Reuters and The Guardian, Gates stated he recognized his judgment had been 'badly mistaken' and that he understood why staff felt their work was being overshadowed. He committed to a third-party review of Foundation governance and said he would accept its recommendations.
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