Features
Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer, Brad Smith
This year, Smith pledged $500 million to be spent on increasing affordable housing in Seattle
By Chelsea Lin November 5, 2019
This article originally appeared in the November 2019 issue of Seattle magazine.
This article appears in print in the November 2019 issue, as part of the Most Influential People of the Year feature. Click here to subscribe.
Microsoft’s recent renaissance is nothing new; the local tech giant has seen substantial revenue growth since Satya Nadella took over in 2014. (Nadella made our Most Influential list that same year.) This year, Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith is making sure some of that revenue goes to a good cause: In January, he pledged $500 million to be spent on increasing affordable housing in Seattle. Of that, $225 million has been promised to middle-income housing in six cities near its headquarters in Redmond, and $250 million to building low-income housing. The remaining $25 million will go to services for low-income and homeless residents.
Where other companies shirk responsibility in alleviating the local housing crisis, Smith has addressed it head on, saying that when you create jobs, you need to create housing, too.
Follow Us
Most Influential: Jen Barnes
Owner, Rough & Tumble
Lots of people tried to dissuade Jen Barnes from opening Rough & Tumble, among the first women-themed sports bars in the United States. She didn’t listen. “Quite a few tried to talk me out of this because at the time it was crazy,” says Barnes, a fourth-generation Seattleite and a huge sports fan who spent…
Most Influential: Rico Quirindongo
Director at Office of Planning and Community Development, City of Seattle
Rico Quirindongo received an email from then-Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan in August of 2020 in the throes of the pandemic with the subject line, “I want to talk to you about the future of the city.” “I thought it was spam,” Quirindongo recalls with a chuckle. “Then I realized this is actually her email and…
Most Influential: Amy Tipton
Gallery owner, advocate
Amy Tipton is nothing if not resourceful. In 2013, shortly after opening her now-shuttered Belltown boutique Sassafras, she decided to resurrect the neighborhood’s monthly art walk, which had fizzled after Roq La Rue Gallery moved south to Pioneer Square. “I found an old map of the locations that used to participate, then reached out to…
Most Influential: Bob Davidson
CEO, Seattle Aquarium
When Bob Davidson visited the Seattle Aquarium 22 years ago as newly appointed CEO, he brought his three college and high school-age sons along to tour the facility. Little had changed or been invested in the city-run Aquarium over the past decades, and it showed. Aging exhibits and informational signs did little to inspire or…