Ray Ozzie named chief software architect at Microsoft

Ozzie takes top Microsoft software job - After a two-decade courtship of Ray Ozzie, Microsoft Corp. finally landed the soft-spoken industry visionary last year and now he will succeed company founder Bill Gates. As the dust settled on Bill Gates' announcement that he planned to step down from day-to-day involvement with Microsoft, so the spotlight fell on Ray Ozzie, his successor as the company's chief software architect. In opposition to Bill Gates who never wrote his own blog and let Robert Scoble write on the scoblizer some kind of substitute, Ray Ozzie writes his own blog, and the postings "Really Simple Sharing" and "Wiring the Web" are really interesting. Ray Ozzie and Bill Gates have been friends and rivals since the Silicon Valley boom of the 1980s. Ray Ozzie's most famous creation is Lotus Notes, the collaborative email and database program, that was bought later by IBM. This background and his wider interests in collaborative working has led the Microsoft to buy his company, Groove Networks on April 2005. At that point Ray Ozzie became inofficial Microsoft's chief technology officer - a role that fed speculation that he was being groomed as Mr Gates' long-term replacement. Ray Ozzie's influence is expected to push Microsoft further into highly developed web applications and knowledge sharing programs, areas where Microsoft is feeling the pressure from such companies as Google. Ray Ozzie will immediately assume the role of chief software architect and begin working with Bill Gates. Craig Mundie will take the new title of chief research and strategy officer. Steve Ballmer said it was unrealistic to think that any one person could replace Bill Gates.

"I don't think that's a realistic hypothesis."

Bill Gates described his decision as a re-ordering of his priorities and expressed confidence in the future of Microsoft. He said the world has had a tendency to focus a disproportionate amount of attention on him, when in reality Microsoft was a company with a breadth of talent. - 'Mr Microsoft' Gates to ease out of job - Gates Giving Up His Management Role At Microsoft By 2008 - Bloomberg - eSchool News - Seattle Times - Los Angeles Times