Windows veteran Veghte quits Microsoft

After spending the last several months considering other available jobs at Microsoft, Windows veteran Bill Veghte has decided to look for a job outside the company where he has worked the past 20 years, he announced on January 14.

Until last summer, Veghte was Senior Vice president for the Windows business, and was responsible for the business strategy/planning, sales and marketing across Windows, Internet Explorer and Windows Live properties and shared responsibility for Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) sales. In July, when Steven Sinofsky was appointed President of the Windows division, Veghte said he was going to look for a new role inside the company.

(Tami Reller, the Corporate Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Windows and Windows Live, is handling many of those duties these days.)

Veghte (with whom I spoke briefly by phone today) said he had been looking for a new job at Microsoft doing something new. That would be challenging, given he's done everything from field sales, to working on CE, Office and Windows Server. In the end, after meeting with CEO Steve Ballmer, he decided to leave the company and seek a position elsewhere. He said he currently doesn't have a job and is open to considering a variety of opportunities.

(I did ask if Veghte was one of the Microsoft layoff casualties and was told he was not.)

In his note about Veghte to employees, Ballmer had this to say:

"Bill has indicated a desire to run a business in a more end-to-end fashion and continue to explore new areas in the broad technology, communications, and services sectors.  I want to thank Bill for his important contributions to Microsoft over nearly two decades and wish him the very best in his new endeavors."

In his own resignation note, Veghte told a story about how he came to join Microsoft. From that note:

"20 years ago I sent my resume west and got a rejection letter. I knew all about Asian culture but little of computers and software.

"I tried again. Got an interview, flew out, crashed the rental car on the 520 bridge, spent 4 hours in the ER, put on a neck brace, and went to the interviews."

He got the job: To help market Windows 3.0. Most recently, he was marketing Windows 7. Veghte said over the last few months he felt as though he had made good on his Windows 7 commitments and was satisfied with how the product was doing.