Bill Hilf, the veteran tech executive and longtime CEO of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s holding company, formerly known as Vulcan Inc., is stepping down after more than seven years.
The company, which changed its name to Vale Group earlier this year, does not plan to replace Hilf as CEO after his departure at the end of May.
Instead, the current leadership team will oversee day-to-day operations, reporting to Jody Allen, the sister of Paul Allen, a Vale Group spokesperson said in response to GeekWire’s inquiry.
Jody Allen co-founded the company and was its prior CEO. She serves in a variety of related roles, including executor and trustee of Paul Allen’s estate.
Hilf said in an interview Monday that he has been talking with Jody Allen for a while about the right moment to make a leadership transition. The organization, which once employed more than 800 people, now numbers around 140 after a series of divestitures and spin-offs following Paul Allen’s death in 2018.
“We have things on really good pathways right now,” Hilf said, describing the leadership team as “rock solid,” and in a good position to run the organization, reporting directly to Jody Allen.
Hilf said he expects to remain involved in a variety of Seattle-area initiatives, including his role as board chair of the Allen Institute for AI (AI2).
At the same time, he will be spending more time with his family in Montana, pursuing his own personal and charitable interests. He was recently named chair of the national board of directors of American Prairie, a Montana-based nonprofit conservation organization.
A veteran of companies including Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Hilf joined Vulcan in 2016, serving as CEO for about two years prior to Paul Allen’s death in October 2018 from a recurrence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
As previously reported by GeekWire and others, much of the organization’s focus since Allen died has been on overseeing the wind-down and disposition of many of Allen’s projects, investments and assets, such as the h.Club LA and London, Stratolaunch, Vulcan Productions, and the Cinerama theater in Seattle, now known as SIFF Cinema.
The organization does not include the Seattle Seahawks football team or Portland Trail Blazers basketball team, which are owned directly by the Paul Allen Estate, reporting up to Jody Allen separately.
Hilf said he’s confident that Paul Allen’s philanthropic vision will continue.
“You’re seeing it flourish in so many different areas already, like at the Allen Institute, and AI2, where you’re seeing these incredible science organizations, these nonprofits, really make tremendous breakthroughs and attract some of the world’s greatest talent,” he said. “Paul Allen’s philanthropic wave of impact will, I think, go on for many decades ahead, both in Seattle and beyond.”
