Former VP of Developer Relations at Blackberry, Alec Saunders, has taken a new position at Microsoft. Saunders formerly worked for Microsoft from 1992 to 2000 where he worked on the launch of Microsoft Internet Explorer, DOS 6, Windows, and other projects. His new position will be part of Microsoft’s Developer Experience team responsible for promoting Microsoft Ventures.
The news comes from Saunders himself on his blog where he explains his new role at Microsoft:
“Some of you reading this may know that I once worked for Microsoft. Despite being away from Microsoft for 14 years, my experiences there provided some of the most enduring lessons of my career – lessons that I have relied on daily in every role I’ve held since. Those lessons range from campaign mechanics, to management, culture, scale and execution. As many of my former staff at BlackBerry will tell you, we often took lessons from Microsoft and applied them to great effect. So it was natural that one of the first companies I reached out to after leaving BlackBerry would be Microsoft. As of last Monday, I’ve rejoined Microsoft in the role of Principal Technical Evangelist. My beat is Canada – not just Kitchener-Waterloo. My boss is Microsoft Chief Evangelist and Corporate Vice President for Developer Experience, Steven “Guggs” Guggenheimer. I’m part of the global Microsoft Ventures team. And we run programs, like the Microsoft Ventures Accelerators, that are focused on helping early stage companies achieve their full potential.”
Hopefully, Saunders’ new role at Microsoft will add much needed experience as well as help new companies “reach their full potential” with the help of Microsoft software and infrastructure. Saunders’ past experience as a former Microsoft employee as well as his experience as a former Blackberry executive may help Microsoft avoid some of the missteps the company has made in the past. We’re sure an official press announcement from Microsoft will follow shortly.
