He first applied his experience to large-scale consumer products and services following Cisco's acquisition of the Scientific Atlanta set-top box business, and subsequently as Chief Executive Officer of Skype Technologies.
[9] He left the University of London Computer Centre in 1992 to work in Amsterdam on a Réseaux Associés pour la Recherche Européenne (RARE)-funded project as part of the RIPE NCC, an organization responsible for establishing the Europe IP registry and a number of operational standards for European networking.
He was employed at Cisco for more than 14 years and rose to senior vice president and general manager, heading up the enterprise, commercial and small business divisions.
When Bates joined Skype, only 6.5 percent of its users paid to make calls from their computers to landline or mobile devices.
[18] Another anticipated Skype/Microsoft collaboration is with Xbox, which Bates called a "gateway into the living room" in an interview with USA Today in 2012.
[20] In September 2011, Bates announced an initiative called Skype in the Classroom, with the goal of connecting 1 million teachers.
Rumors circulated that Bates was in the running to be the next CEO at Microsoft when Steve Ballmer announced his plans to the position in 2013.
According to reports, he is rumoured to have left Microsoft following the decision by the company's Board to appoint Satya Nadella as successor to Steve Ballmer.
[26] On 4 June 2014 GoPro announced the appointment of Tony Bates as President reporting directly to CEO Nick Woodman.
Bates published the book 'Empathy in Action: How to Deliver Great Customer Experiences at Scale' with his co-author Dr Natalie Petouhoff.
The book was reviewed in Forbes by Adrian Swinscoe in the article 'How to Put Empathy into Action in Your Customer Experience'.