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Visual Studio Exec Leaves Microsoft
After a 15-year tenure, Dave Mendlen is leaving Microsoft to become the chief marketing officer at DevExpress, a Microsoft Visual Studio Industry Partner.
Visual Studio executive Dave Mendlen is one of several high-ranking executives this week who announced their departures from Microsoft.
The senior director of Visual Studio isn't completely severing his Microsoft ties, however; he has been appointed chief marketing officer of DevExpress, a Microsoft Visual Studio Industry Partner (VSIP). According to a statement from DevExpress, Mendlen will assume his new role on Sept. 10.
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| Dave Mendlen. Source: Microsoft |
Over his 15 years at Microsoft, Mendlen held a number of product management and developer titles; he has been both the lead product manager of Visual Studio .NET and the director of Web services strategy in Microsoft's Developer Platform and Evangelism Division.
Mendlen also served as the director of Windows product management, making him responsible for the marketing of several Windows products, including the Windows XP operating system and Windows XP Media Center Edition. In his LinkedIn profile, Mendlen notes he helped develop the "I'm a PC" marketing campaign that took a direct swipe at Apple's popular "Mac Guy" ads.
Other departures from the company include high ranking executives in the Worldwide Public Sector unit and Bing search engine business. Linda Zecher, Microsoft's corporate vice president of the Worldwide Public Sector, has left the company to become the president, director and CEO of publishing giant Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH). HMH appointed Zecher on Sept. 6 and her first day will be Sept. 19.
Zecher joined Microsoft in 2003. Prior to becoming the Worldwide Public Sector head in 2009, she served as the vice president of Public Sector Americas and Asia Pacific, as well as vice president of U.S. Public Sector. As leader of the Worldwide Public Sector unit, Zecher was responsible for a team of nearly 2,000 marketers and salespeople, and oversaw Microsoft's relationships with public-sector entities, including schools, health care institutions and government agencies. Before joining Microsoft, Zecher also served as vice president of Oracle Corp.
It appears that as recently as Aug. 30, there had been no hints that Zecher was about to exit Microsoft. In an internal e-mail that day from Microsoft COO Kevin Turner announcing the departure of worldwide partner chief Simon Witts, Zecher was named one of two Microsoft executives that would be filling interim roles while the company searched for Witts' replacement.
Finally, a notable figure in Microsoft's search engine business, Barney Pell, also left the company this week. Pell came to Microsoft in 2008 after Microsoft acquired search and natural-language company Powerset, where Pell was founder and CEO.
The timing of Microsoft's acquisition of Powerset was notable in that it came just two months after its plans to acquire Yahoo fell apart. In a prepared statement announcing the Powerset acquisition, Satya Nadella, then senior vice president of Microsoft's Search, Portal and Advertising Platform group, called Pell a "visionary and incredible evangelist," adding, "Powerset brings with it natural language technology that nicely complements other natural language processing technologies we have in Microsoft Research."
During his three years at Microsoft, Pell worked on the development of the Bing search engine, which has lately begun to incorporate natural language capabilities.
Pell Tweeted on Tuesday that Sept. 5 was his last day at Microsoft. "I'm now back to full-time angel investor and parallel entrepreneur!" he wrote.
About the Author
Gladys Rama is the site editor for RCPmag.com.