On Tuesday, March 8, Bill Gates spoke about his life experiences to Economic Club of Washington D.C. The Economic Club is an exclusive organization of Washington’s top business and professional leaders. Members of the Economic Club affiliated with the GW community include former president Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, President Steven Knapp, and Richard Kane, President and CEO of International Limousine Service (the company that operates The Vern Express).The one-hour program included a conversation between Gates, the chairman of Microsoft and the co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and David Rubenstein, President of the Economic Club, as well as several questions from the audience. Gates reminisced on his three years at Harvard University and the beginnings of Microsoft. “When [Microsoft] went public, the value kept going up,” Gates said when asked about being the youngest billionaire in America at the age of 32.
Gates says the people he looks up to in the world of business and politics are Warren Buffett and Nelson Mandela, respectively. Gates has no plans to run for political office. “I don’t think it would draw my best talent out, meeting with constituents [and] raising money.”
Jack Evans, Ward 2 pro-tempore councilmember on the DC Council, is also a member of the Economic Club. After the event, Evans said the event was “entertaining and funny.” Although he “heard a lot before,” he took particular interest in what Gates had to say about health and education. When asked about Kwame Brown, Chairman of the DC Council, and his purchase of a “fully-loaded” SUV, Evans believes “it is being handled by the [DC] Attorney General.” Evans believes the city is doing everything it can to get the money for the vehicles back, with whatever difference being paid by Brown.
