Brad Smith first visited Microsoft’s Redmond campus as a young lawyer in 1990. The cab driver got lost on the way from Sea-Tac Airport. Imagine that happening today.

The tech sector exploded shortly thereafter. Suddenly, everybody knew Microsoft. The region quickly became more cosmopolitan, more diverse, more affluent. It earned a global reputation, all because of one transformative company in a sleepy Seattle suburb.

“One of the things that has always amazed me about Microsoft is that we in so many ways are really the United Nations of software,” Smith says. “Microsoft built that. Amazon and all these other companies have added to it. We’ve changed the face of the region mostly for the good.”

Smith, who joined the company in 1993, has served as chair and vice president at the software giant for more than nine years. It’s been quite a run for a lawyer who initially thought he’d be at Microsoft for just a couple years. And he’s not even close to being finished as Microsoft celebrates its 50th anniversary in April.

For starters, the company recently launched a “50 for 50” campaign featuring 50 grants of $50,000 each to 50 “changemaking” organizations across the region. It’s Microsoft’s way of thanking the community for helping make it so successful (Seattle magazine has named Microsoft one of its “Most Influential” for its ongoing commitment to the region.)

It’s all about the future rather than the past, a mindset Smith calls “one of the defining attributes of this company.”

“We do look back,” Smith says, “so we can use that and hopefully gain insight to do a better job of looking forward.”

“Everybody gets to write the next chapter. What’s year 50 about? It’s about year 51. It’s getting ready for the next year, the next decade, the next 25 years to come.”

Microsoft is going all in on artificial intelligence, something Smith calls a “general purpose” technology that will soon be as ubiquitous as electricity. Seattle is already known as the “cloud capital” of the world, and he envisions a similar outcome for AI. The company is heavily involved in the Cascadia Innovation Corridor, an initiative that seeks regional cooperation and solutions involving communities between Vancouver, B.C., and Portland. It is increasingly focusing on affordable housing, even after committing $675 million and creating 12,000 units over the past six years alone.

Microsoft and then Amazon have committed enormous resources toward solving the housing crisis, but the problem persists because of a range of challenges, including supply and demand, high costs, and regulatory issues. Smith and other leaders are now turning their attention to vacant commercial properties — including underutilized or empty strip malls — as potential solutions. He credits former Gov. Chris Gregoire and her advocacy organization, Challenge Seattle, for their leadership on the issue. Much of it comes down to rezoning.

Smith acknowledges Microsoft’s past, noting that the company has 228,000 employees and 290,000 alumni. Microsoft even has its own nonprofit organization, the Microsoft Alumni Network, that operates from its Redmond campus.

“(Alumni) deserve to be proud of what they did. But mostly the reason that we have been successful is because we don’t get too excited about the past,” he says. “Everybody gets to write the next chapter. What’s year 50 about? It’s about year 51. It’s getting ready for the next year, the next decade, the next 25 years to come.”