I question how much of that transition they made though. They ARE decision makers by virtue of their knowledge and seniority, but they are not people managers.

I question how much of that transition they made though. They ARE decision makers by virtue of their knowledge and seniority, but they are not people managers. They still work mostly on technical problems (either as a lead or doing research). And from the little I read online, they strongly shun the managerial aspects of their positions, letting someone else deal with anything non-technical or that is not a personal pet peeve of them. In many modern tech companies they'd instead be a (pretty powerful) VP of something and let someone else be the C*O to deal with the people/managerial aspects of the company.