Microsoft executive Bill Veghte is leaving to pursue new opportunities

In an email to Microsoft executive staff on Thursday, Steve Ballmer announced Bill Veghte is leaving the company at the end of January. A Microsoft employee for over 19 years, Veghte recently served as Senior Vice President of the Windows business. He began working at the Redmond company in 1990 as an Associate Product Manager.

Over the years, Veghte assumed a variety of roles, including managing the development of several Windows releases. Under his direction, Microsoft's North American Sales and Services organization increased customer and partner satisfaction by 18 percent, while top-line revenue went up $2 billion in three years.

According to Ballmer's email, Veghte intends to run a business and explore new areas in technology once his position at Microsoft ends. The following email message was posted on Microsoft's web site:

Jan. 14, 2010

I am writing to inform you that after a 19+ year career here, Bill Veghte has decided to leave Microsoft at the end of this month.

Bill joined us in 1990 in the earliest days of building the Windows Office franchise as an associate product manager. Since that time he has worked in a wide variety of roles from leading the development of Windows 98 to spearheading the development and marketing of the Windows Server line to leading Microsoft North America. Most recently, Bill served as the Senior Vice President of our global Windows business where he was instrumental in the delivery and launch of Windows 7, helping us reenergize the Windows franchise. We all know Bill not only as a great leader who has consistently delivered strong results across sales, marketing and engineering teams, but also as a team player full of passion and commitment to the work at hand.

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.

Steve