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Floor Speech

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Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise today to acknowledge the passing of a friend, a great Washingtonian, Bill Neukom--one of the most thoughtful and caring human beings I have had the pleasure of working with and knowing.

Bill was a legendary leader in technology who made incredible contributions and helped pave the way for the innovation economy. As a philanthropist later in his life, he cared deeply about making the world a better place. His efforts will have longstanding impacts on his adopted home in the Pacific Northwest and also on his beloved native Bay Area and the world at large.

As Microsoft's first general counsel, Bill played a pivotal role in the story of the company's unparalleled business success. Those in the industry know the extraordinary engineering challenges the company overcame through genius and tenacity, providing the operating system for the world's first mass-marketed desktop computer and beating all the competitors to the Holy Grail and making that operating system multitask--a milestone that laid the technological foundation that would serve the world's needs for decades to come and so many more yet to come. Bill was part of that.

People who are inside the company know the important legal roles that he played and know that the challenges they face would not have been able to be overcome without Bill's contributions. Consider the accomplishments that came on his watch in the early days, being a small tech startup, and then he served as the chief counsel to one of the world's most valuable and important companies.

In 1980, Microsoft signed perhaps the most advantageous business agreement ever. And at a time when few even knew what software was or could fathom how it would have monetary value, Bill Neukom argued and successfully defended the once-controversial notion that software was copyrightable. Now, of course, that is a bedrock principle that continues to provide the foundation for innovation in our economy. There are certain levels of productivity that we have all achieved because of it.

In confronting these incredible challenges, Bill always came through for his company, for his friends, and through incredible work in his community. He also was instrumental in embedding philanthropy and public service into the company's culture, launching programs such as the Microsoft Giving Campaign and Libraries Online. And I remember that at one point in time, Bill once considered running for public office.

I am so glad that we all got the benefit of his contributions in the private sector and from his philanthropy. He continued to make those public contributions after leaving Microsoft, and he cofounded the World Justice Project, an international civil society organization that works to advance the rule of law around the world--such an unbelievable impact. As a result of his generosity and his intellect and resources, many organizations benefited.

He took on leadership roles in the American Bar Association, serving as president and earning the ABA Medal in 2020 in recognition of his career contributions.

Bill gave back to educational institutions that meant so much to him. He served as trustee at both Dartmouth and at the University of Puget Sound, and he made significant--significant--contributions to the University of Washington and to Stanford and to numerous other community causes.

Bill and his family founded the Neukom Family Foundation, supporting education, the environment, justice, and public health. One of his lasting legacies is his family foundation, which helped establish and grow the Wild Salmon Center.

Many of my conversations with Bill over the last several years have been about that very Northwest icon, the Pacific Northwest salmon.

This organization focuses on long-term, science-driven, and collaborative solutions to protect and restore iconic salmon runs. And I know that Bill, as a fisherman himself, was always very interested in how we could use this science to better improve our outcomes.

When I first met Bill--everybody would remember him because he wore his unique bow tie. It was part of his personality. But when you met him, he was also a person of unbelievable kindness, and that always, always stayed with him.

I remember many times, in my role in the Commerce Committee, calling him up and asking him for advice about critical issues, and he was always there to tell me that these are the three people I should call and consult. I always found that so interesting, given his great intellect and his great ideas--he always wanted me to reach out to more people.

He was an avid golfer, a fly fisherman, and I often saw him at airports on his way to one of those great, beautiful places in the Pacific Northwest.

But many Americans might know him for his other passion, and that is baseball. I personally prefer the Seattle Mariners, but Bill, growing up in the Bay Area, had a childhood love that brought him into ownership and participation as a leader of the San Francisco Giants. Under this leadership, the team improved on the field, going from 72 wins in 2008 to 92 wins and a Major League championship just 2 years later. I happened to go to a game with him in the Bay Area, and, again, his love and passion for the success of that team was undeniable.

We are going to miss Bill Neukom. We are going to miss his warmth, his laughter, his kindness, his contributions, his intellect, and just an unbelievable chapter of Northwest history that he participated in. And I know all of his friends and colleagues at Microsoft will also miss him.

I want to say a special outreach to his family, particularly his wife Sally--I know this is a very hard time--and his 4 children, 14 grandchildren, and 2 brothers Davidson and Daniel.

We all were so privileged to know Bill. We are all so grateful for his contributions to all of us in the Nation and certainly for what he did in the Pacific Northwest.

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