REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft executives on Monday told Bill Gates to stop sending female employees flirtatious emails but dropped the matter after he told them they would stop, the company revealed.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report that Gates, then Microsoft s general counsel and now the president and vice chairman, and another executive met Brad Smith after the company discovered inappropriate emails to a midlevel employee.
The newspaper reported that Gates did not deny the exchanges and members of the Microsoft board who were briefed on them declined to take further action. There wasn t any physical interaction between Gates and the employee.
Microsoft MSFT declined to confirm comment Monday except to confirm the Journal's reporting. Smith didn't return a request for comment made through the company.
Gates had stated in a written statement that these claims are important rumours from sources, who have no direct knowledge and in some cases have false conflicts of interest. It declined further comment.
The reported 2009 warning came more than a decade before similar alleged behavior led the tech giant to hire a law firm in 2019 to investigate a letter from an engineer who said she had a sexual relationship with Gates over several years.
That investigation preceded Gates departure from Microsoft boards last year, but didn t come to light publicly until after Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates announced in May they had decided to end their marriage of 27 years. The divorce had been finalized in August. The former couple still jointly run Bill Melinda Gates Foundation.
I started with Paul Allen spc until 2000, and has gradually scaled back his involvement in the company he was left in 1975 with Gates in 2000. In 2008, he transitioned out of a day to day role in Microsoft and served as the chairman of the board until 2014.
Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw told the Journal that the 2008 warning from company executives came just before Gates retired as a full-time employee. Shaw told the newspaper that Gates has suggested meeting the employee outside of work in emails that were sexual, flirtatious and inappropriate but not overtly inappropriate. The latest disclosure about Gates adds to concerns raised by a Microsoft investor who called fellow shareholders to support a proposal which would force the company to investigate its workplace harassment policies and release a report about them.
Reports of inappropriate relationships and sexual advances toward Microsoft employees have exacerbated concerns, putting in question the culture set by top leadership and the board's role holding those culpable accountable, says the proposal from Arjuna Capital on the agenda of Microsoft s annual shareholder meeting next month.
Microsoft urged investors to reject the proposal in a letter filed with regulators last week, arguing it is unnecessary because the company has already adopted plans to publicly report how it is implementing its policies on sexual harassment and gender discrimination.