Microsoft board members decided Bill Gates should resign from its board in 2020 after starting an investigation into the co-founder’s prior sexual relationship with a female staffer that was deemed inappropriate, people familiar with the matter said.

Board members tasked with handling the matter hired a law firm to conduct an investigation in late 2019 after a Microsoft engineer alleged she previously had a sexual relationship with Gates, sources told the Wall Street Journal. Amid the investigation, some members of the board said it was no longer appropriate for Gates to sit as the director of the company he founded and led for several decades amid the #MeToo movement, the sources said. Gates resigned before the investigation concluded, another person familiar with the matter said.