The longtime executive in charge of building tools for developers, is leaving to “pursue the next phase of my career.”
S. “Soma” Somasegar, the longtime Microsoft executive in charge of the unit that builds tools for software developers, is leaving the company.
Scott Guthrie, the executive vice president who oversees the Redmond company’s Cloud and Enterprise division, informed employees of Somasegar’s departure in an email on Monday. The news, reported earlier by ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, was confirmed by a Microsoft spokesman.
Somasegar was in charge of Microsoft’s work building software for the developers who make programs for Windows and other platforms. He oversaw the teams behind the Visual Studio developer program and .NET programming framework, among other programs.
In comments posted to his Twitter page, Somasegar, 49, said he was leaving to “pursue the next phase of my career.”
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“I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve accomplished together,” he said. “It has been an absolutely great journey.”
Somasegar, who joined Microsoft in 1989, is well respected among the Microsoft developer community. Before his developer work, he contributed to eight Windows releases.
He was the executive sponsor of the software development hub the company established in Hyderabad, India, in the late 1990s, one of the first Microsoft built away from its Redmond campus. He oversaw the development units in India, China and Israel.
Along with Chief Executive Satya Nadella, he was also among the first India-born employees to reach Microsoft’s executive ranks.
Microsoft hadn’t named his successor, but aims to announce a transition plan in the coming weeks.