Brad Smith (Master in Law, 1984) has been announced as the new President of Microsoft, after many years with the company. A former partner at Covington & Burling, Brad Smith joined Microsoft in 1993, back when it was still working on a project code-named “Chicago”, which would eventually become a household name - Windows 95.
In those years, Microsoft was ascendant and highly competitive. Smith had his work cut out for him. Microsoft, led by Bill Gates, would soon find itself mired in an antitrust lawsuit with the US Justice Department focused on how Microsoft attained dominance—at the time, more than 80% market share for PCs—in operating system software. A few years later, Microsoft was back in court for similar claims, this time pertaining to its bundling of its Internet Explorer web browser with Windows. By the time Steve Ballmer was named CEO, replacing Bill Gates at the turn of the millennium, the company found itself fighting multiple legal battles. Ballmer managed to settle most of them by 2005.
Brad Smith, who was named the company’s general counsel in 2002, was right there alongside Steve Ballmer, overseeing the negotiations. He spent three years leading its Legal and Corporate Affairs (LCA) team in Europe and five years as deputy general counsel. His tenure at Microsoft is marked by major competition law and intellectual property decisions that have shifted the trajectory of the technology industry, intellectual property acquisitions that still pay dividends for the company, and battles over software piracy and other cybersecurity concerns that continue unabated. His latest project is establishing the legal foundations for “the cloud”, also known as cloud computing, in which a person or company’s data is stored in a distributed manner on Microsoft-operated servers.
On 11 September 2015, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella promoted Brad Smith to President of Microsoft. In addition to his usual legal duties as chief legal officer, Smith will be responsible for “privacy, security, accessibility, environmental sustainability and digital inclusion”, Satya Nadella wrote in his announcement. “He also leads a team of business, legal and corporate affairs professionals spanning 55 countries. These teams are responsible for the company’s legal work, its intellectual property portfolio, patent licensing business, and the company’s government affairs, public policy, corporate citizenship and social responsibility work”.
Satya Nadella also addressed Smith directly in the announcement. “I learn from you constantly and deeply value your advice,” he wrote. “You exemplify the growth mind-set that we’re working so hard to permeate our culture. You look for new opportunities, you listen, you learn and you push us forward. I look forward to what you will do in the years ahead”. In 2013, Brad Smith was named by the National Law Journal as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the United States.
Speaking at the Graduate Institute in 2011, Brad Smith said “My wife and I attended together… the year we spent here was a magical year. It was a unique opportunity to broaden our perspectives. We had the opportunity to study and learn from some magnificent Professors, and have our eyes opened by interacting with students from across Europe and around the world”.
A video of our 2011 interview with Brad Smith can be found below.
Full article by Andrew Nusca in Fortune, 14 September 2015.