In an email to company employees, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced that Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie will be leaving the company after an unspecified transition period. Ozzie joined the company in 2005 when Microsoft aquired his Groove Networks. In June 2006 he was named Chief Software Architect, filling the position former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates had occupied before he left the company. Ozzie is well known for his work in the cloud, and in the company letter Ballmer commends him for “position[ing] [Microsoft] well for future success.”
As a company, we’ve accomplished much in the past five years as we look at the cloud and services. Windows Live now serves as a natural web-based services complement to both Windows and Office. SharePoint and Exchange have now decidedly embraced the cloud. And by conceiving, incubating and shepherding Windows Azure, Ray helped ensure we have a tremendously rich platform foundation that will enable app-level innovation across the company and by customers for years to come.
Ozzie’s reason for departure is undisclosed, and Microsoft has no plans to fill the “unique” CSA role. Click the source link to read the letter in full.