‘Hi Steve’

No shouting or sweeping up the crowds as he does on many You Tube clips. But Microsoft ceo Steve Ballmer sure knows how to entertain an audience even when he is sitting down.

Ballmer visited the Erasmus University October 8th to participate in the talk show NOVA College Tour (broadcasted October 11th). Over 600 students crowded the Sorbonne lecture room and were eager to ask this hotshot critical questions.

Ballmer talked about how he started Microsoft with Bill gates 30 years ago after dropping out of Harvard and about the fierce competition with Apple. And he had an important message to all the future businessmen and women in the room: “Whatever you do, do something you feel very passionate about. That’s how I select new employees; I look into their eyes to see the sparkle of passion when they talk about something they’re proud of.”

Hopefully Deirdre Gras, one of the BA students asking a question, has this sparkle, because she boldly asked Steve Ballmer if he needed an intern. Ballmer, energetic as he is, jumped up and gave her his business card. “I’m definitively going to e-mail him”, she said. LJ/WG

Foto: Jordi Huisman