 Today’s Featured Program was Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft, who was with us to talk about their upcoming 50th Anniversary (April 4th) as a company. Brad was born and raised in Wisconsin and joined Microsoft in 1996 after working as an attorney so he has been with them for almost half of their history. Brad’s theme was, “you can’t have a healthy company without a health community; you need both.” He presented some impressive statistics of the impact of having a company like Microsoft in our community: - 80% of their 60,000 regional employees gave time and money to local charities
- Which included half a million volunteer hours in the Puget Sound area
- They were the second company in history to reach $1 billion donated to charities (2013)
- Microsoft and their matching program contributions totaled $3 billion with about one third of that going to this region.
Three standout issues for Microsoft that he discussed are: - Transportation – he mentioned the company’s work and investments in transit, light rail and the 520 Bridge over the years and their current priority to get ultra-high speed rail built from Vancouver BC to Portland and receiving funding from the federal government
- Housing – people can’t afford to live close to where they work so Microsoft is helping build more housing as well as working for some policy changes in permitting and rezoning land. He said that “we are not in good shape though” and mentioned that Washington ranks last in having affordable housing.
- Education – he highlighted the company’s $30 million investment in Washington STEM and their active role with Washington State Opportunity Scholarships
He concluded with “what makes this region and country so special: the public sector rule of law, private sector = engine of innovation which is the envy of the world and our non-profit sector. No other country has all three legs of the stool that we have.” |
