Bill Gates once sent “inappropriate” and “flirtatious” emails to a woman on his staff and was ordered to stop when he was at Microsoft in 2007, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.
Gates sent the emails to a mid-level female Microsoft employee in 2007, and also reportedly asked her to meet up outside of the Microsoft campus and during non-work hours.
Microsoft executives discovered Gates sent the emails in 2008, and met with him to reportedly discuss the matter, when former general counsel Brad Smith and former chief people officer Lisa Brummel asked him to stop. The report claims Gates agreed to stop, and said the emails were not a good idea.
Since Gates did not have physical contact with the woman, Microsoft’s board agreed to not pursue further action.
The claims in the report are “false, recycled rumors from sources who have no direct knowledge, and in some cases have significant conflicts of interest,” according to Gates’ spokesperson Bridgitt Arnold, while Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw told the publication that the employee never filed a complaint about the alleged messages.
“While flirtatious, they were not overtly sexual, but were deemed to be inappropriate,” Shaw said when asked about the emails.
The most recent report comes several months after it was reportedly revealed that Gates left the Microsoft board amid an investigation into an alleged affair with a female employee in 2019. Gates and his now-former wife Melinda then released a joint statement earlier this year, revealing that they were ending their 27-year marriage.
