A May 2021 New York Times investigation reported that, over many years, Bill Gates had pursued women who worked for him at Microsoft and the Gates Foundation. In one documented 2006 episode, after a female Microsoft employee gave a presentation, Gates emailed her to ask her to dinner — writing, 'If this makes you uncomfortable, pretend it never happened'; the woman, who was uncomfortable, did exactly that. The reporting, published alongside news of a board inquiry into a prior affair, described a pattern of behavior in work settings; a spokesperson for Gates disputed characterizations that he had engaged in misconduct. The account complicated his carefully managed public image.