Ozzie Gets a Promotion!

No, not that Ozzy. The Ozzie I am talking about is Ray Ozzie. Yesterday afternoon, at Microsoft's TechEd 2006 conference in Boston, Billy G gave journalists a better story than they were hopping for. Bill made the announcement that he will be retiring in July of 2008. The man stepping up to the plate as Microsoft's new Chief Software Architect will be current CTO Ray Ozzie, while Steve Ballmer will remain CEO.

Ray Ozzie started off by earning his bachelor’s degree in computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he first learning about computer-supported cooperative work. His experiences at UI sparked his interest in software development and collaborative systems which influenced him throughout his career and made him what he is today.

More on Ozzie after the jump.

During his flourishing career, Ozzie was one of Lotus Symphony and Software Arts Inc.'s key developer for TK!Solver and VisiCalc. He then moved on to become the founder and president of Iris Associates Inc., where he created Lotus Notes. Then, in October 1997, Ozzie founded Groove Networks, home of Microsoft Office Groove.

Along his travels from business to business, Ozzie was named PC Magazine's Person of the year. He was also inducted into the Computer Museum Industry Hall of Fames as well as the InfoWorld Hall of Fame. These are just naming a few of Ozzie's awards that he received throughout his career. Good Luck Ozzie.