Bill Gates Open To Obama Administration Role

Washington Post:

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who is in Washington this week to press his foundation's education and global health agenda, said he is keeping an open mind about taking a role aiding the incoming Obama administration.

Asked in an interview yesterday with The Washington Post whether he would consider serving in the new administration, Gates left the door open.

"Certainly my full-time job is being chairman of the foundation," Gates said. "If there was some committee or pretty focused task where I could contribute, I'd be glad to consider that, and I hope that the things we've learned about education -- including the mistakes we've made -- I hope we do get a strong dialogue and I'm very optimistic we'll have that with these people."

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[Wolf Larsen]

Thanks Bill.....but I will take Steve Jobs instead.....I mean he is the innovator......you are the imitator.

[kgb999]

Steve Jobs hasn't innovated a damn thing. His schtick is to take stuff the industry has been doing for years - put it in a shiny case - and then pretend like it's never been done before. He takes credit for more stuff he didn't do in one MacWorld event than Gates has in his lifetime(and that's saying something).

I've read he even takes credit for Mac being the first computer to use multiple FONTS. We were doing that back in the Atari800 days.

[Citizen54]

The guys who work for Jobs are the innovators.
Jobs is the marketer (and most brilliant at it, especially when he turns on his infamous reality-distortion field).

[kgb999]

Hell no Hell no Hell no!!!!! The biggest monopolist of our time should be allowed nowhere NEAR government!!!!!

[theone718]

As a matter of fact who IS being considered for CTO?

[theone718]

CTO Bill Gates? Talk about HEAVYWEIGHTS.

[Fabini]

Reality Check: Bill Gates is NOT a technologist, he's a marketer.

[kgb999]

Thank you! Hire a person with real skills - not a figurehead who takes all the credit.

[Serfie]

If Gates really wanted to contribute, he should 1) Stop producing a crappy operating system, 2) stop outsourcing jobs( and importing cheap workers) and create technical campuses for American workers, 3) Use his foundation money to develop America instead of supporting corrupt backwards regimes around the globe.

[kgb999]

#2 & #3 are the important ones to think about!

[RadhaColalurver]

He doesn't even work at Microsoft anymore. Right now he's a global philanthropist...

[iPolitics]

Is Bill Gates volunteering to make sure Obama's Blackberry and MacBook are secure during his presidency?

[KarateKid]

Yeah, with weekly security updates.

[Fabini]

While reading other posters here, I was reminded of the Justice Departments victory in the Microsoft anti-trust case. Rather than promote a convicted felon, maybe the Obama administration should actually administer some punishment. Lord knows Vista is not the work of a genius.

[BSERIUS]

Now , how many UNION workers are employed by microsoft? How many outsourced workers? But of course that can be dismissed as this is Obama

[KarateKid]

Why does Microsoft have to be unionized? Look at unionized companies, i.e. the Big 3 v.s non union car companies in the US, and compare the results. Unions aren't always the answer.

[theone718]

If I was Obama and came across this I would say "OH REALLLLLYYYYY" There is a technological post in the Admin. Who better to do that then Gates?

[timm0]

Anyone who is not an unscrupulous monopolist would be better than gates. Microsoft hasn't had an original idea since.... well, they've never innovated anything.

and right now we need innovative people, not ruthless opportunists.

[theone718]

Ouch, talk about a major progressive backlash lol.

[KarateKid]

Actually, to compete with China, we could use ruthless opportunists.

[kgb999]

My little sister.

[leatherbunny]

If Bill Gates is volunteering for ANY job, then I would definately put him somewhere. Wow I can not wait to see what our country will do in the next years! I think we are in for some POSITIVE TIMES!
Crossing fingers((not legs.., (come on smile a little)) that the President - elect will reel Gates in.

[deeppeace]

Dream team.

[JMBrodie]

I'll bet Gates could come up with a "Blackberry" Obama could use...

[Fabini]

America: It's time to wake up.

[JMBrodie]

Obama may need him. Where exactly do you think the new Prez is going to get the money to fund education reforms?

[AERO]

No thanks, but we'll take Steve Jobs if he's available.

[lthuedk 1]

A dedicated and connected philanthropist would save time in getting operations going. Perfect, actually.

[elizaconnors]

I agree.

[Fabini]

Let's turn over government to private business, the dedicated and connected.

Please get out of the 80s.

[desi4obama]

Gates at his Foundation is way more effective than anything Govt related. It's not even been couple of months since he's been there full time.

It's also laughable that Gates is somehow behind the fact that there is lot more qualified high tech pool available outside the country. Lou Dobbs asinine TP aside, Gates has been hammering on the fact that US has to gear more people into the Engineering and Sciences otherwise India and China will continue to churn out more graduates. The H1B people are Engineers and Scientists...calling them just 'workers' is laughable. Unless of course you think tech support and working on IPV6 at Cisco of Microsoft is the same thing.

Having just graduated from GT, it safe to say the majority of graduate students are from India and China anyways. Only American TA I saw was for some BS liberal arts course.

[kgb999]

Right, but the engineers and scientists that they replaced were AMERICANS. The big difference: H1B workers cost WAY less and don't have nearly the rights or ability to organize and look out for their own interests as workers. Redmond is full of former MS engineers who no longer have jobs because they were let go in favor of short-term H1B workers that get less benefits and no retirement.

Gates didn't staff positions that he couldn't find Americans to take - he uses H1Bs INSTEAD of Americans because the current system rewards him for putting Americans out of work.

MS is the WalMart of tech companies.

[Citizen54]

You are so right.
Check the employment and layoff histories of the tech companies (software in particular) that claim they need a great influx of H1B workers and you'll find many 40- and 50-year-old engineers who've gotten pink slips.

[duddface]

this is off the record, my wife is one of those"H1-B slaves" you talk about and works at Macrossoft. In her team of 20 she is the only H1-B slave while all others are Stanford, UW educated blue collar Americans. In fact her manager was a lakeside high school dropout, a brilliant C++ coder that interned there one summer and later on started out as a developer and progressed to be the group's manager.
As for me, I am the lone H1-B slave at a product development company that makes portable medical ultrasound that saves lives. i am sure that i make the same amount of money,get the same amount of benefits that my other American colleague of the same experience level. They hired me because they could not fill in this hardware position even after 2 years.

bottom line, if a business wants to grow by hiring the best and want to retain the best and if they don't find the right talent they always look for options. The last time I checked America was still a capitalistic society with out any protectionism.

And I live in Redmond, all i see is 40 and 50 year old americans who cashed in their stock options and have retired early and rich!.

The one thing that i agree with you is I am a Linux user myself and hate MS to the core(a secret that I keep from my wife:-).