Another Microsoftie Bytes the Dust

In the wake of recent high-level departures from Microsoft’s senior management team, another long-term corporate vice president has also left the company.

Last week, Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division, announced he will leave the software maker after more than 25 years.

Now, it’s come out that Rob Short, corporate vice president of Windows Core Technology, also recently left the company. “We can confirm that Rob Short … left Microsoft in December 2007,” a company spokesperson told InternetNews.com in an e-mail.

Short, who has been with Microsoft for 19 years, most recently has been in charge of “design, development and testing of the core components of the Microsoft Windows operating system: the operating system core, virtual machine technology, input/output subsystems and the core device drivers,” according to his bio on Microsoft’s Web site.

Given that virtualization is a key part of Microsoft’s systems strategy going forward, that makes Short’s role all the more important. He also has worked on improving driver quality for all Windows products, the bio says – a major pain point with many users of Windows Vista early on.

Additionally, according to Microsoft’s Channel 9 developers’ site, Short was in charge of the team that “architects the foundation of Windows Vista.”

Short was initially brought on board Microsoft to work on Windows NT – the company’s first important server product. “Since then he has led the development of setup, plug-and-play, clustering and other core features in Windows,” his bio states.

Previous to Microsoft, Short worked for Digital Equipment Corp. as a senior development manager.