Apparently the world’s richest man Bill Gates decided to leave the day-to-day operations at the company he founded 30 years ago, leaving some big shoes for Ray Ozzie and Mundie to fill. I think, what’s more important is that he decided to fill himself in some even bigger shoes, i.e. to become a full-time phlianthropist. I truely admire his courage to step up to the plate to address the world’s endless problems.
The high tech industry produced no small number of high power phlianthropist from individuals such as pioneer William Hewlett and David Packard (HP), Gordon Moore (Intel), Steven Kirsch (Infoseek), Dave Duffield (Peoplesoft), Jeff Skoll (eBay) to organizations such as Community Foundation Silicon Valley. But Bill Gates’ decision to devote his full attention (i.e. his smart and money) to his fundation is sure to generate some very positive outcome for the entire sector.
I just hope that more high-tech leaders will rise to the challenge and work together for a better (not just more profitable) future.