Gates Announces Semi-Retirement, Bill Gate's "transition" out of a day-to-day role, more intensely focus on charity work.

Gates Announces Semi-Retirement
Jason Lee Miller | Staff Writer

It'll take two men to fill Bill Gate's shoes at Microsoft. In a
surprise announcement late yesterday, the behemoth software company
chairman, whose Windows operating system changed the face of personal
computing, said he would "transition" out of a day-to-day role in the
company so he could more intensely focus on charity work.

Not only will it take two men, Chief Technical Officers Ray Ozzie
and Craig Mundie to take on Gates' responsibility, but they will be
learning the ropes of the world's premiere company over a two-year
period. By July 2008, Ozzie will assume the title of chief software
architect; Mundie will be the newly created chief research and
strategy officer while partnering with general counsel Brad Smith
to guide Microsoft's property and technology policy efforts.

Though Gates will continue to serve as the company's chairman and
advisor on key development projects, but the majority of his time will
 be devoted to global health and education, the focus of Gates'
nonprofit Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.