19 year Microsoft veteran Brian Valentine has announced that he is leaving the Vole-hill to join Amazon.
A Microsoft Corp. executive who led Windows Vista’s development is leaving for Amazon.com, with the clock ticking down to the scheduled release of the delayed operating system.
Brian Valentine, a Microsoft veteran known for rallying the troops to finish big projects, is due to start work at Amazon as a senior vice president in mid-September.
After 19 years at Microsoft, Valentine will join Amazon as a senior vice president in mid-September, said Patty Smith, an Amazon.com spokeswoman. The Seattle-based Internet retailer declined to give details of Valentine’s new role.
“We are delighted to have him,” Smith said. “… We do not normally comment on executive arrivals.”
Valentine has been in charge of the development of Windows Vista, whose formal title was senior vice president of the “Windows Core Operating System Division,” appears to be leaving Microsoft on good terms.
Valentine’s departure comes four months before Windows Vista’s scheduled January retail debut, and Microsoft still needs to work out bugs to complete the massive project in time. In previous Windows versions, Valentine has played a key leadership role in those final stages before release.
The move seems to have followed a decision by Microsoft to give the veteran an “unspecified position” after Vista is shipped in January.
Called upon by CEO Steve Ballmer in the late 1990s to drive struggling Windows 2000 over the finish line, Valentine’s departure coincides with the release of a near-final version of Vista, which also has been plagued by delays.
In a statement praising Valentine for his 19 years at the company, Microsoft said the Windows Vista project "remains on track." Valentine’s team is now reporting to Jim Allchin, the co-president of the company’s Platforms & Services Division.
But some analysts have questioned whether Microsoft can meet the current schedule.
Valentine’s last day at Microsoft was Friday. That coincided with the completion of a near-final test version of Windows Vista, known as Release Candidate 1 — a key step toward the new operating system’s release.
Analysts viewed the senior vice president’s exit as part of a regular cycle that tends to coincide with the completion of Microsoft’s major products, and as a sign that Vista is on track to meet its schedule.
"It would not be unusual to see some fall-off of the people associated with a big project like Windows Vista," said Dwight Davis, a software-industry analyst at Ovum Summit. "I doubt that Brian would have left if there were a lot of major problems still associated with the [Vista] code."
Windows is the company’s biggest moneymaker, with versions for PCs bringing in more than $10 billion in annual profit. Windows Vista is currently due for release to businesses in November and consumers in January, after multiple delays during its nearly five years of development.
“Valentine played a critical leadership role and his contribution to the success of many Microsoft products is significant and indelible,” a company representative said in an e-mail.
“Microsoft wishes him well on his next challenge outside the company.”
The 46-year-old Centralia native and graduate of Eastern Washington University was not made available for an interview by Microsoft and could not be reached.
Valentine’s departure follows news in August that Microsoft would reassign him to an unspecified position elsewhere in the company after Vista’s release, part of a broader management revamping in the Windows division.
His move to Amazon may signal that Windows Vista is nearly complete and "the taskmaster is no longer needed," said Joe Wilcox, a Jupiter Research analyst. On the other hand, it could come at "a volatile time, which could have a negative impact on Microsoft’s ability to meet the schedule, particularly if there are unexpected problems."
The outcome will hinge on how many bugs testers uncover in Release Candidate 1, he said.
Though Amazon is not disclosing Valentine’s job, executives tend to define their roles, at least in part, themselves.
“Somebody like Brian does not have to post his résumé on Monster.com,” said Laura DiDio, Yankee Group analyst. “I’m sure that Amazon is giving him a lot of latitude.”
One area where he could focus is Amazon’s emerging digital-media effort.
Since the start of 2003 Amazon has invested $1.3 billion in technology and content with no big prize to show for it.
A series of executives have left Microsoft over the past year, but Valentine’s position and long tenure make him particularly noteworthy. Among other things, he was publicly praised by the company as an effective leader in the final stages of Windows 2000 development.
He was most recently senior vice president of Microsoft’s Windows Core Operating System Division, a central group responsible for Windows engineering. He has been a leader in a variety of areas, even in extracurricular activities — learning how to ice skate so he could play goalie for the Windows hockey team.
Volish insiders say that Valentine was pivotal in managing to get the demoralized Vista development team working under extreme pressure. He was not able to get the operating system out the door earlier, but the fact it came out at all was probably down to his enthusiasm.
While Amazon never comments on future projects, the company recently registered the word "Unbox" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in mid-August.
In its filing, Amazon said Unbox would be used to sell goods and services, namely "downloadable computer software for the delivery and viewing of digital media."
Valentine brings to Amazon the respect of software engineers; strong leadership abilities, and a sense of humor, once masquerading as John Belushi’s Bluto Blutarski in a Microsoft video spoof of "National Lampoon’s Animal House."
After the Windows 2000 effort, Valentine and others said that they would get Windows out on a regular schedule and revise the difficult and unpredictable development process, said Rob Helm, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft.
As Vista comes to its conclusion — now more than two years late — “it was by every measure as difficult a development cycle” as Windows 2000, Helm said.
Unlike some other Microsoft executive departures, Valentine’s move appears amicable. Microsoft issued a statement Tuesday wishing him well at Amazon and calling his contributions to the company’s products over the years "significant and indelible."
Some analysts said his departure didn’t come as a complete surprise, given the Vista delays and the earlier news of his expected reassignment.
"Brian Valentine, for all of his enthusiasm and the respect he has in that organization was not able to get Windows (Vista) out the door any faster," said Helm.
Valentine bears some responsibility for the Vista delays, but "you could argue that the project itself was overly ambitious and I do not know if anybody in his role could have done a better job of getting the operating system out on time," said Davis at Ovum Summit.
While Valentine walks out the door with a lot of institutional knowledge, it is not irreplaceable and new leaders are already stepping into the Windows Division, Helm said.
Valentine reported to division Co-Presidents Kevin Johnson and Jim Allchin, who is planning to retire at year’s end. Jon DeVaan now takes full control of the Core Operating System Division.
He has shared the job with Valentine since early last month, when Microsoft said Valentine and two other senior executives would be moving to other positions within the company on completion of Vista.
DeVaan was previously working with Chairman Bill Gates on better ways of building large software systems.
Heading the Windows and Windows Live group is Steven Sinofsky, who amassed an on-time record as senior vice president in the division that builds Microsoft’s other major product: Office.
Microsoft has revamped the division’s leadership in recent months, with the goal of keeping future versions from suffering the delays that Vista has.
“The leadership at Windows is changing bottom up,” Helm said. “There is not going to be a void. There is going to be a whole new order.”