Add as a preferred source on Google


Barney's Blog

Blog archive

Raikes Retires To Do Good

I've always liked Microsoft executive Jeff Raikes. Back in the '80s and early '90s, it was nothing to have dinner, lunch or just a simple sit-down with everyone from Gates to Ballmer to Raikes. You get to know a person over a plate or two of Thai food, and Raikes impressed me as being a straight-shooting, overall nice guy, and a man who could make Mensa members feel stupid.

This year, Raikes announced that he's leaving Microsoft. But he ain't going very far: Raikes will be the new CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

This is a perfect move. The Gates Foundation doesn't just write a bunch of checks; it carefully researches how the money could do the most good. It takes a smart man to spend Bill's money, and Raikes is just the guy for the job.

Posted by Doug Barney on May 15, 2008


Featured

  • Microsoft Dismantles RedVDS Cybercrime Marketplace Linked to $40M in Phishing Fraud

    In a coordinated action spanning the United States and the United Kingdom, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) and international law enforcement collaborators have taken down RedVDS, a subscription based cybercrime platform tied to an estimated $40 million in fraud losses in the U.S. since March 2025.

  • Sound Wave Illustration

    CrowdStrike's Acquisition of SGNL Aims to Strengthen Identity Security

    CrowdStrike signs definitive agreement to purchase SGNL, an identity security specialist, in a deal valued at about $740 million.

  • Microsoft Acquires Osmos, Automating Data Engineering inside Fabric

    In a strategic move to reduce time-consuming manual data preparation, Microsoft has acquired Seattle-based startup Osmos, specializing in agentic AI for data engineering.

  • Linux Foundation Unites Major Tech Firms to Launch Agentic AI Foundation

    The Linux Foundation today announced the creation of a new collaborative initiative — the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) — bringing together major AI and cloud players such as Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and other major tech companies.

Most   Popular