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Featured in the first wave of interviews in the Microsoft Alumni Network‘s new “Alumni Voices” oral history project are (clockwise from upper left): Bill Neukom, former Microsoft general counsel; Steve Ballmer, former CEO; Bob O’Rear (MS-DOS, programming languages); Mark Zbikowski (MS-DOS, Windows NT, OS/2); and Scott Oki, who founded and led Microsoft’s International Division. (Microsoft Alumni Network Photos)
[Editor’s Note: Microsoft @ 50 is a year-long GeekWire project exploring the tech giant’s past, present, and future, recognizing its 50th anniversary in 2025. Learn more and register here for our special Microsoft @ 50 event, March 20, 2025, in Seattle.]
At one point back in the 1980s, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates could barely contain their skepticism about a prediction by Intel’s Andy Grove that PC sales would someday reach 100 million units a year.
“Bill and I sat and just laughed,” Ballmer recalls as part of a new oral history project, produced by the Microsoft Alumni Network. “He doesn’t know what he is talking about. There’ll never be that many PCs sold.”
Last year, the global PC market surpassed 245 million units.
An early Microsoft engineering leader, Mark Zbikowski, imagined his stock might make him a “thousandaire.” Microsoft’s IPO in 1986 turned many employees into millionaires and transformed the Seattle region in the process — fueling a collective economic and philanthropic engine that continues to have an impact to this day.
“Did I really know at the time that Microsoft was going to become the behemoth that it is today? Not a clue,” said Scott Oki, who started Microsoft’s International Division in the early 1980s. “I mean, I don’t think Bill Gates had a clue.”
MORE INFORMATIONSee the Microsoft Alumni Network’s new “Alumni Voices” project.
Even with Microsoft’s hard-driving culture, and its vision for a computer on every desk and in every home (running Microsoft software), the magnitude of its success took many of the company’s early employees by surprise.
That’s one of the themes that comes through in the first wave of interviews in the new Alumni Voices oral history project, which will feature employees and leaders from throughout Microsoft’s history.
Microsoft Alumni Network, an independent membership organization, is producing the series in recognition of Microsoft’s 50th anniversary in April 2025, and the alumni organization’s own 30th anniversary this year.
The series launched this week with an initial set of five interviews, focused on Microsoft origin stories. Featured are Ballmer, Oki, Zbikowski, early software development leader Bob O’Rear, and former general counsel Bill Neukom. For each person, the alumni group is releasing video highlights and an interview transcript.
It’s scheduled to continue rolling out in the months ahead, featuring 50 interviews conducted by the alumni network. Future installments will delve into subjects including global expansion, Windows, Office, Xbox, R&D, the internet, the cloud, Microsoft’s campus, and the company’s social impact.
With more than 290,000 former Microsoft employees worldwide, the goal is to instill a sense of shared history, empowerment and pride; to demonstrate the impact alumni have had on the world; and to create excitement about the future, said Manuela Papadopol, the Microsoft Alumni Network executive director.
“It’s bringing that community together to celebrate and get inspired to do better,” she said.
In addition, the Microsoft Alumni Network is encouraging alumni to submit videos talking about their own experiences at the company. It’s also inviting nominations for future interviews in the series. (See more details here.)
The initial 50 interviews were conducted by Mario Juarez, who created and ran the company’s internal “MicroNews” newsletter; and longtime business journalist Becky Monk, the alumni network’s chief marketing officer.
Monk said the highlights for her have included hearing the origins of features that people take for granted today, such as early Microsoft Word developer Rosie Perera telling the story of creating the now widely used search-and-replace feature. (Perera will be included in a future installment.)
As part of this week’s release, O’Rear recalls that Microsoft’s original connection to IBM, the company’s critical early partner, was made by Gates’ mom, Mary Gates, who knew the IBM CEO through her work with United Way.
Gates, Ballmer, and O’Rear flew to Florida for their first meeting with IBM, and on the drive from Miami to Boca Raton ended up debating what felt like a key issue at the time: Gates had forgotten to bring a tie, which seemed like a major oversight for a meeting with executives of the era’s tech powerhouse. But they were running late.
“The argument was, do we stop and get a tie for Bill, or do we go in with no tie?” O’Rear recalled.
The argument in favor of the tie won out. So they found a shopping mall, waited for it to open, bought a tie off the rack, and the rest was history — until, years later, Microsoft decided it was time get out of the IBM partnership. But that’s a story for a future installment in the Microsoft Alumni Network project.
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