Microsoft has fired chief information officer Stuart Scott for “violation of company policies.”
Microsoft refused requests for further information from multiple sites, saying only that “We can confirm that Stuart Scott’s employment with Microsoft was terminated after an investigation for violation of company policies.”
Scott joined Microsoft in 2005 after 17 years at GE, where according to his Microsoft bio page he was recognized by CIO Magazine as one of the top 100 CIOs in 2003.
In a Q&A on Microsoft Presspass in December 2005, Scott described his role in two parts: “to help the company think through and define its strategic priorities, then deliver the business-process capabilities and solutions to achieve them….[and to] lead the Microsoft IT organizations in designing, building and running the IT systems that we use to run the company.”
Microsoft GM Shahla Aly and Corporate VP Alain Crozier will take over from Scott until a replacement is hired.
(in part via ZDNet)
7 children.
I guess he installed Ubuntu on his laptop.
Microsoft has fired chief information officer Stuart Scott for “violation of company policies.”
He switched to Mac?
Word on the “street” is that they caught this dude using an iPhone to surf pr0n in the bathroom while he listened to Steve Jobs’ podcast. He’s also been seeing with a Linux Penguin sticker on his VW Jetta.
gave larry and sergey a login
Don’t discount the porn possibility. I had a friend at Intel that got caught, and that ‘company policy’ phrase sounds eerily familiar.
If they can fire a CIO, he probably has done something really bad.
http://www.givemebeats.com
Searching for porn at Google with Firefox on his Walmart Linux laptop while talking on this iPhone to the EU in order to get the email address to send sourcecode that block realplayer from working.
Or so I heard
He wasn’t killing is minimum quota of puppies……
Also, maybe he was waterboarding people!?
http://www.beer...-4-years-later/
Rory Blyth and I were having an interesting conversation on the BCS blog about another instance of “Trouble in Redmond” about 4 years ago, except I’m afraid it was a little more serious than a simple firing.
He was checking his gmail at work!
He wore a pink shirt to work!
@ 8 .. all this while syncing his iPod with iTunes
I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but it’s because he gave us a 65 slide Sliderocket preso on why we should standardize on Flash. We laughed. he even suggested we use it to demo Halo 3 on the Xbox. Please. We’d never do that.
Working on a startup on the side?
For laughing in public at the facebook valuation.
What The Hell Did He Do?
Kudos to Microsoft for dealing with the problem and not pretending it was something else (like resigns to pursue other interests).
Isn’t that what we want from business?
i am guessing it is something serious like sexual harassment.
“i am guessing it is something serious like sexual harassment.”
LOL. Sexual harrassment is the most made up corporate crime in history. If a man even looks at a woman the wrong way, he has “abused” her. Funny, it doesn’t work the other way around. Thanks, feminists…
I own my own company. I’ve had to fire someone very high up here the exact same way: clean and swift. The reason was grievous insubordination. This person let a then-recent promotion go to his head although he was still in the standard 90-day probation period. As days went by, he became more arrogant and then on about his 40th day of probation made a completely out-of-line suggestion to staff that he knew better than I and they did how to run this company, and started telling me, the CEO and owner of the company, “do this” and “get started on that”, “change this” and “change that”. On the basis of a probationary promotion, he felt he was indispensable and could therefore sass me. He was kind of talented in a minor, easily-replaced way. But he felt he was a Roman god and we minions were at his creative mercy.
The company door couldn’t smack the back of his ass fast enough. I fired him that same 40th day. Things have been smoother here ever since and my employees have all come to me thanking me quietly for getting rid of the individual. I feel bad for how long I kept him on and put them through having to knuckle under to him.
My take is this was insubordination. “Gates, I know better than you.”
Clean your office and desk. Be out in 15 minutes. Goodbye.
You guy’s are hilarious! ‘Didn’t kill his quota of puppies”. LOL
oh yeah – there’s always been the ‘microsoft exec with tb’s of porn hidden on the corporate network’ – i’ve heard that one for years – maybe there’s more than one.
It was probably just that he is not politically astute enough to survive at that level @ MSFT. Speaking as ex-10 year employee
At that level it is like the Roman Senate, every day you could get assinated or banished. If you don’t play the game on every level, someone who wants you gone can get an ‘internal investigation’ started and …ta da. 17 years at GE and 2 at MSFT sounds about right.
Because to get fired as an exec at MSFT you have to pretty much show up to work naked pushing a wheelbarrow of coke and with an AK47 strapped to your back and dragging a live boy or a dead girl dead girl behind you. Those guys all party and fuck their subordinates all the damn time, seriously. They are millionaires, and have huge egos, thats what guys like that DO. You have to do something amazingly stupid like do it in your office and get caught to get fired.
I think he just didnt meld with the good ol’ boys in the billionaires club so, buh-bye.
@22 – well heather, if you fired him, who is going to watch the lemonade while you go to the bathroom? the mailman has been known to swipe free samples.
everyone is a ceo on techcrunch.
From Seinfeld:
Mr. Litman: It’s come to my attention that you had sex with the cleaning woman on your desk?
George: Was that wrong? I mean, at the last place I worked at, we did it all the time!
@25:
“….an AK47 strapped to your back and dragging a live boy or a -dead girl- dead girl- behind you.”
Two dead girls…….that seems like a lot of physical work for a CIO.
7 children.
Exactly. Fuk children. Right?
I don’t know Stuart Scott’s particular sin, but I do know of 2 other very high level execs to be dismissed in the last couple of years for similar “violation of company policies” reasons.
Microsoft does an unusually good job of not letting the “old boys” get away with typical “old boy” crap (e.g., improper expensing, business conflicts of interest, sexual misconduct with suboordinates, etc.)
I’m just glad its not another facebook post…
@25 Well spoken for a techie flunky. I am sure that MS does not miss you and whomever you work for now wishes that MS would not throw out its trash.
Get an appointment with your shrink!
@rod, well thank you for your support of my ability to convey myself.
I am just saying, I saw a lot of stuff either firsthand, or from people who did (who I completely believe) and I know that drugs, sex (and freaky sex at that) and other crazy stuff, is pretty common amongst people who (despite the products that they create) are highly intelligent and have a lot of extra cash to spend on vices. People get caught having sex in their offices on a weekly basis over there, and they don’t get fired for it.
This dude either wasn’t a fit, wasn’t that smart, or got caught doing something really funny with his budget. MSFT will forgive any multitude of sins, but you fuck with the piggy bank and you are dead before you hit the floor. Screw your admin, that’s cool, steal from Bill, you are dead.
And I don’t work for anyone anymore. I am retired. Do the math. Count the splits.
My best guesses:
1. Refused to deploy Vista
2. Proposed to shift server infrastructure to Linux
3. Saw the support budget for the internal Vista deployment, sprinkled ashes on himself, and started dancing on his desk with occasional fits of nervous laughter.
4. Was exposed to Linux for more than 30 seconds.
I wonder if Scott is gonna have pbs with being hired again anywhere else now that he has the ms rejected stamp on him
Probably get fire because he love himself more than windows.
looking out of the windows too long
Heather – who’s judgment made him climb the ladder ? All of sudden easy to replace on the cheap?
I heard that he made fun of Bill Gates’ hair.
Maybe he ran Linux at home? Maybe switched to X-Windows.
He was caught doing the Ballmer monkey dance in the company breakroom.
He’s done a Rob!
Hilarious.
He was fired because he was adamant about his way of doing things and his way was not working. Simple as that.
The world is full of willing people; some willing to work, the rest willing to let themselves down!
Good for you Scott
Wow, that’s funny. Sorry for the useless comment anyway
Concluded that the monolith was broken and could not be fixed.
I think he bought an iRack for gates. Probably better than what he had too
Ballmer needs firing!
Does anyone still use MS stuff anymore? Well, maybe the OS but anything else?