Ray Ozzie

“In 2010, Ray Ozzie actually leaves the company, but as he's doing, he and Steve roll Red Dog, by this point in time renamed Azure, back into the server and tools business, and the two of them go to the University of Washington, and Steve gives a speech at the …”

“Ray, of course, being the author of Lotus Notes, Ray is a legendary developer, and he has great relationships within Microsoft, because Ray built Lotus Notes not at Lotus, but at his own software studio startup, and Lotus was just his publisher.”

“And so in January, 2006, Ray with Steve Bomber's full blessing goes and starts recruiting for a secret project within Microsoft incubated outside any of the existing divisions.”

“So in June, 2006, when Bill announces his coming retirement, Ray gets named as his successor in the official chief software architect role.”

“I kind of think all of the credit for the vision for it and the championing it for the initial seven years within Microsoft goes to Steve and to Ray.”