The Ave.US has learned from contacts in Detroit, at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and staff working for the board of the Broadmoor Golf Club that Alan Mulally has been chosen as the new CEO of Microsoft.
- Mr. Mulally was the choice of many because of three things. First, he is from Seattle and a long-time friend of Bill Gates. Our sources say this is very important since Mr. Gates is very
loyal to Seattle and was quoted by one source as saying he wanted to be sure the company stayed “in the family.” Not everyone knows that Mulallay, while working at Ford, still serves as Co-Chairman of the Washington Competitiveness Council and sits on the Advisory Boards for the University of Washington. Second, while Mulally is best known for being the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Ford Motor Company, and returning that company to profitability after the Great Recession, folks in Seattle remember the man as the engineer who led Boeing Commercial Aircraft back into profitability before the unfortunate merger with McDonald Douglas took the company to Chicago and South Carolina.
Third, and apparently the deciding factor, is Mr. Mulally’s personality. A source at the Gates foundation said … “he is the un Balmer, the un Gates, and especially the un Jobs. In an industry where leaders are seen as ogres or mystic deities, Mulally’s style is seen as leading the Microsoft brand into people’s homes and hearts.”
Mr. Mulally’s relationships with the Gates family go back to work he did with Bill Gate’s mother when she was a regent at the University of Washington. Thanks to Bill Gates’ father, William Gates II, Mr. Mulally will be joining the board of the Gates Foundation, creating a bridge that Mulally began exploring as Ford helped support the rebuilding of Detroit.
Finally, the search committee realized that Mulally is at heart very much a tech guy who already has impressive credentials in computers. At Boeing Mullaly was known as an engineer, heading Boeing’s information systems and winning the 1978 Industry Engineer of the Year by the National Society of Professional Engineers for the use of computer systems to design Boeing’s 777. At Ford, he directed the collaboration with Microsoft to create Sync, a pioneering product that integrates the car with WiFi and Blue Tooth devices
Alan Roger Mulally’s achievements at Ford are chronicled in the book, “An American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company” by Bryce G. Hoffman published in 2012. It is rumored that he will move into a temporary home in Broadmoor Golf Club sometime after February of the New Year. The discreet home on Shenandoah Drive East has 5,380 Sq. Ft. – 5 Bedrooms 3.5 Bathrooms and is on sale for $2,595,000. The source said this house was chosen because the Broadmoor community is walled and gated, providing the sort of security Mr. Mulally will need in his new job.