Bill Neukom obit

Bill Neukom, top SF Giants exec from 2010 World Series team, dies at 83

Neukom was the Giants' general managing partner from 2008 to 2011

 He was not on the list.

Bill Neukom, the former managing general partner of the San Francisco Giants who was the face of ownership during the team’s first San Francisco title in 2010, has died. He was 83.

His death was first reported by the Puget Sound Business Journal. Neukom was a longtime Seattle-area lawyer, and his former law firm, K&L Gates, confirmed his death in an update to his bio. The American Bar Association, of which Neukom was president from 2007 to 2008, also posted a tribute to Neukom. The Giants released a statement about Neukom on Thursday afternoon from president and CEO Larry Baer.

“On behalf of Greg Johnson, our ownership group and the Giants family, we extend our deepest condolences to Bill’s wife, Sally, and the Neukom family. Bill will always hold a special place in our hearts and in the history of this franchise,” Baer said in the statement. “He was instrumental in helping this organization and its players bring the first World Series Championship to San Francisco in 2010. Bill will always be remembered for not only his leadership of this storied organization but also his colorful bowties and the fact he’d bring a glove to the ballpark to try and catch foul balls. He was a true gentleman, a dedicated fan and a friend to so many.”

Neukom was born in San Mateo and grew up as a huge baseball fan, which included going to San Francisco Seals games in the Pacific Coast League. He bought into the Giants in 1995 and took over as managing general partner when Peter Magowan stepped down in 2008.

Rather infamously, Neukom said upon starting in his role that he wanted to change how the organization operated and coined the phrase “The Giants’ Way,” which referred to a set of standards that people in the organization would follow. Neukom was an easily recognizable figure around the ballpark because of his height (approximately 6-foot-4), his affinity for wearing bow ties and his habit of watching batting practice at nearly every home game.

Just two years after Neukom took over, the franchise won its first championship since moving from New York in 1958. It sparked a massive celebration throughout the city, with Neukom in an orange-and-black bow tie right up front, and kicked off what would become a dynasty.

But Neukom wouldn’t be front and center for those next two titles. In 2011, Neukom was ousted from the managing general partner role in a highly dramatic and public fight with the Giants ownership group’s executive committee. According to several reports at the time, Neukom reportedly drew the ire of his fellow owners for freely spending money the team earned from its World Series success and not communicating with the executive committee about it, leading some owners to learn about decisions through newspaper reports.

According to the San Jose Mercury News, those expenditures included off-field items, like buying new technology for the front office, as well as increasing the on-field payroll through both the signing of Aubrey Huff and trading for Carlos Beltran. The San Francisco Chronicle also reported that Neukom and the other owners were at odds over how much the organization should have paid Neukom himself.

Neukom was most famous for being Microsoft’s in-house general counsel during the company’s ascent in the 1980s and 1990s. Neukom built Microsoft’s legal team from a staff of five to more than 600 people before stepping aside in 2002. He also argued on the company’s behalf in several high-profile cases, including one against Apple and another antitrust suit against the U.S. government, both of which Microsoft won.

Neukom was a founder and CEO of the World Justice Project, an organization that says it aims to “create knowledge, build awareness, and stimulate action to advance the rule of law worldwide.” He also taught at Stanford Law School, where he earned his law degree, for many years and was on the dean’s council for the school.