Long-time Microsoft evangelist retires

Microsoft veteran Sanjay Parthasarathy is leaving the company after 19 years.

According to a Microsoft spokesperson, Parthasarathy made the decision to retire with his family to India late last fall but didn't announce it publicly inside Microsoft until last week.

"The timing from decision to announcement was to allow for a planned transition that included Sanjay’s involvement," the spokesperson said.

Parthasarathy had been Corporate Vice President of the Developer and Platform Evangelism Group (D&PE) for a number of years. In February 2008, he became head of Microsoft's Startup Business Accelerator, an incubator charged with building startup businesses inside Microsoft.

Parthasarathy's replacement is Amit Mital, who currently is Corporate Vice President in charge of Microsoft's Unlimited Potential Group. Mital will continue in that role, plus add management of the Startup Business Accelerator to his responsibilities, the spokersperson said.

During the most recent round of Microsoft layoffs, two of the Startup Accelerator projects, the .Net Micro Framework and the ResponsePoint small-business phone system, were cut back significantly.