Watch Bill Gates on The Daily Show

Microsoft Chairman and the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart this week, almost three years since his previous appearance on the show. However, in just three years, Gates’ focus has changed dramatically. Whereas at the start of 2007 the Microsoft co-founder was busy advertising the young Windows Vista operating system, this time around he focused on his philanthropic efforts. Gates left Microsoft for a full-time role with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, choosing to attempt to provide solutions for critical global problems including health, poverty and education.

In the video embedded at the bottom of this article, you will be able to see the entire interview on The Daily Show. As you will be able to see, Gates make no reference to future Microsoft products whatsoever, talking instead of his work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The only reference to the company he co-founded involves noting that he’s a loyal Microsoft user to a joke made by Stewart referencing Apple’s iPhone.

Gates’ presence on The Daily Show coincides with the Microsoft co-founder’s new found appetite for social media and reaching out to people on the subjects that matter most to him. Not only did Bill Gates rejoined Facebook, but he also started up a Twitter account, and kicked off a personal website dubbed The Gates Notes. At the same time, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation made public the 2010 Annual Letter from Bill Gates where he outlines his vision in terms of the organization’s efforts.

“2009 was the first year my full-time work was as co-chair of the foundation, along with Melinda and my dad. It’s been an incredible year and I enjoyed having lots of time to meet with the innovators working on some of the world’s most important problems. I got to go out and talk with people making progress in the field, ranging from teachers in North Carolina to health workers fighting polio in India to dairy farmers in Kenya. Seeing the work firsthand reminds me of how urgent the needs are as well as how challenging it is to get all the right pieces to come together. I love my new job and feel lucky to get to focus my time on these problems,” Gates stated.

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