Women seeking jobs in Bill Gates’s private office were asked sexually explicit questions, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. An external security firm tasked with interviewing candidates for Gates Ventures asked female candidates about their sexual history, the kind of pornography they liked, if they had nude photographs on their phone, extramarital affairs and whether they had experimented with drugs, among other such questions.
The questions were purportedly asked as part of a background check to see whether the candidates would be vulnerable to blackmail, but male applicants for the same positions were not asked about such personal details, according to the WSJ report.
The questioning was carried out by Concentric Advisors, but the company denied asking these questions. Concentric Advisors CEO Mike LeFever told WSJ that it “complied with applicable state and federal laws” while interviewing candidates for Bill Gates’s personal office.
However, some women who spoke to WSJ said they were asked if they had previously "danced for dollars," and one woman revealed she was asked if she had ever contracted a sexually transmitted disease. Others spoke about being questioned over past drug use, extramarital affairs, sexual history and more.
A spokesperson for Gates Ventures said she had personally not heard about Concentric Advisors asking sexually explicit questions, but said the "line of questioning would be unacceptable and a violation of Gates Ventures’ agreement with the contractor."
“We have never received information from any vendor or interviewee in our 15+ year history that inappropriate questions were asked during the screening process,” she said in a statement. “We can confirm, that after a comprehensive review of our records, no employment offer has ever been rescinded based on information of this nature.”
