Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was an "office bully" and a "womanizer", Business Insider reported, adding that his clean reputation was just a result of "good public relations".
Citing four female Microsoft employees who described Gates as "brash" and "short-tempered", a former company executive said that having a meeting with Bill was just an opportunity to "get yelled at", so "I tried to avoid that".
According to the report, another former executive had something else to say. She found Gates "direct" and "honest".
"Bill yelled at everyone the same," she said.
Around the time he divorced Melinda Gates in May, some reports highlighted Microsoft co-founder's "inappropriate behaviour" at the workplace and his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
"Microsoft's PR team was very controlling of the message and overly worried about perception," a former executive was quoted as saying by Business Insider.
Meanwhile, journalists and Microsoft insiders said that the company went to "great lengths" to protect the billionaire's personal life.
A former Microsoft board member, Maria Klawe, claimed that "unreceptive" to suggestions about improving diversity in succession planning, a suggestion often made by female employees. He behaved as though he was the "smartest person in the room", she said.
According to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal, board members at Microsoft Corp. made a decision in 2020 that it wasn’t appropriate for its co-founder Bill Gates to continue sitting on its board as they investigated the billionaire’s prior romantic relationship with a female Microsoft employee that was deemed inappropriate. The Journal had reported that board members looking into the matter hired a law firm in late 2019 to conduct an investigation after a Microsoft engineer alleged in a letter that she had a sexual relationship with Gates over several years.
Meanwhile, The Times had reported that on at least a few occasions, Gates made overtures to women who worked for him at Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Times cited people with direct knowledge of his behavior.
READ MORE: Microsoft investigated Gates for 'sexual relationship' with employee before he left board: Report
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