Larson’s behavior in exchange, they agreed to never speak about their time at the firm.Įven as Cascade grew to more than 100 employees and to manage more money than most Wall Street hedge funds, the perception that Mr. (Several of them also complained to his wife, Melinda French Gates.) Cascade made payments to at least seven people who witnessed or knew about Mr. Larson, according to former employees and others with direct knowledge of the complaints. Over the years, at least six people - including four Cascade employees - complained to Mr. Larson retaliated by trying to hurt the stock price of the company she planned to join. When an employee said she was leaving Cascade, Mr. He made a racist remark to a Black employee. He openly judged female employees on their attractiveness, showed colleagues nude photos of women on the internet and on several occasions made sexually inappropriate comments. Gates’s money-management firm, Cascade Investment, according to 10 former employees as well as others familiar with the firm.
Larson, 61, also engaged in a pattern of workplace misconduct at Mr. Gates’s fortune has gone from less than $10 billion to about $130 billion.īut Mr. Larson and the soaring value of Microsoft’s shares, Mr. Larson has invested the Microsoft co-founder’s money in farmland, hotels, stocks, bonds, even a bowling alley. For 27 years, Bill Gates has entrusted the management of his enormous wealth and the endowment of his giant foundation to a single man: Michael Larson.