Mary Jo Foley is an American freelance technology writer, author, podcaster and news editor.

[3] In 1984 she interviewed the then head of Microsoft, Bill Gates, for a cover story in Electronic Business magazine.

During the interview, Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs, whom Foley did not know, walked up and began chatting with Gates.

Eventually Foley grew impatient and told Jobs that she was trying to do an interview, and asked him to come back later.

In the late 1990s, she edited the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet,[4] and subsequently the "Microsoft Watch" blog for Ziff Davis.