Microsoft veteran Antoine Leblond quits after 25 years

Letter of resignation

Antoine Leblond, former corporate vice president of Windows, has joined Jon DeVaan and Grant George in leaving the software giant after a perceived snub following a recent reorganisation at Microsoft.

DeVaan, Grant and Leblond were all left with unclear roles in the company following the September reshuffle of the Windows business unit, which saw all of them lose their executive positions.

According to Re/code, which claims to have seen a copy of an email sent to colleagues announcing his resignation, Leblond said: "After almost 25 years, I've decided it's time for me to go out and see what the non-Microsoft world has to offer.

"Every single day I have had here has been amazing in its own way, and I will never look back on all of these years with anything but fondness, pride in what we've accomplished together, and a real appreciation for having been lucky enough to be part of so many awesome things."

He will leave on the 9,000th day of his employment.

Most of Leblond's Microsoft career was spent in the Office business unit, working with Steven Sinofsky for much of that time.

He moved to the Windows unit at the same time as Sinofsky and was behind the development of the cloud services and store for Windows 8.

However, when Sinofsky resigned in 2012, Leblond stayed on as corporate vice president of Windows until the September 2013 reshuffle.

"I am sad to leave all of you, but also incredibly excited for what comes next," Leblond's email concluded.

Jane McCallion
Deputy Editor

Jane McCallion is ITPro's deputy editor, specializing in cloud computing, cyber security, data centers and enterprise IT infrastructure. Before becoming Deputy Editor, she held the role of Features Editor, managing a pool of freelance and internal writers, while continuing to specialise in enterprise IT infrastructure, and business strategy.

Prior to joining ITPro, Jane was a freelance business journalist writing as both Jane McCallion and Jane Bordenave for titles such as European CEO, World Finance, and Business Excellence Magazine.