3 ms·
Apparently. She was on a charity board with the CEO of IBM. That's how Microsoft got it's DOS break. She was the first female president of King County's United
by Clubber 9y ago
Apparently. She was on a charity board with the CEO of IBM. That's how Microsoft got it's DOS break.
She was the first female president of King County's United Way, the first woman to chair the national United Way’s executive committee where she served most notably with IBM's CEO, John Opel, and the first woman on the First Interstate Bank of Washington's board of directors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Maxwell_Gates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Maxwell_Gates
- koonsolo 9y agoYes! And somehow this part is always left out when telling the tale of MS and Bill Gates. While in my opinion, it's one of the biggest reasons of the success.
- wslh 9y agoNo company can survive and strive so many years because of a single event like this, not even multiple few lucky events. I don't also think other people have had the gut and attitude to negotiate a non exclusive agreement with IBM at that time.
- koonsolo 9y agoYou are absolute correct. And in no way I want to say Bill Gates didn't deserve his success. But it's hard to argue that this didn't have any effect on the deal that basically made Microsoft.
- mcherm 9y agoSee, now that is TWICE as informative as the entire article. I never knew that.