# Gates steps down as Microsoft chairman, remaining a technical adviser

Date: 2014

## The fact

On 4 February 2014 [Bill Gates](/people/bill-gates) stepped down as Microsoft chairman as Satya Nadella became CEO, remaining a technical adviser.

## Context

Neighbouring 2000 CEO handoff is the first succession. Neighbouring Nadella is a different person.

January 2000 CEO handoff is neighbouring. Foundation remains the principal office.

Bill Gates was Microsoft CEO until January 2000, chairman until February 2014, then a technical adviser until 2020, and a Gates Foundation co-chair. That is not authorship of every Windows copy, every GAVI dose, or every IRS schedule. Melinda French Gates is a different person. Bill Clinton is PER-000772, a different person. A pledge is not a coverage rate. A docket is not a personality.

## Evidence and sources

Microsoft carries the official instrument or communique. The Verge records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is [industrial-policy activism](/drivers/industrial-policy-activism): a completed chair exit is a governance-succession instrument. An adviser role is not CEO command.

## What is established and what is not

Established: 4 February 2014 chairman exit, independently reported.

Not established: that he sold the stake, or a unique later Azure coefficient from the announcement.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Nadella became CEO. The board appointed. He remained adviser and shareholder.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies Gates steps down as Microsoft chairman, remaining a technical adviser, not a later speech about Gates steps down as Microsoft chairman, remaining a technical adviser.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. Gates steps down as Microsoft chairman, remaining a technical adviser on 2014-02-04 is not a licence to treat every later Microsoft communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average Gates steps down as Microsoft chairman, remaining a technical adviser into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He left the chair. Nadella became CEO. The board appointed. He remained adviser and shareholder. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series.

## People

- Bill Gates: https://factrail.ai/people/bill-gates

## Drivers

- Industrial-Policy Activism: https://factrail.ai/drivers/industrial-policy-activism

## Sources

- https://news.microsoft.com/
- https://www.theverge.com/2014/2/4/5377226/bill-gates-steps-down-microsoft-chairman-named-tech-advisor

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/gates-chairman-2014