Ray Ozzie (born November 20 1955) is an American software industry entrepreneur who most recently served as the Chief Software Architect of Microsoft. Before Microsoft he was best known for his role in creating Lotus Notes.1 Contents 1 Biography 2 See also 3 References 4 External links Biography

He grew up in Chicago Illinois later moving to Park Ridge Illinois and graduating from Maine South High School in 1973 where he learned to program on a GE-400 mainframe and did technical work on school theater productions.

He received his bachelor's degree in computer science in 1979 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he worked on the PLATO system and began his working career at Data General Corporation where he worked for Jonathan Sachs. After leaving Data General Ozzie worked at Software Arts for Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston the creators of VisiCalc on that product and TK Solver. Shortly thereafter he was recruited by Sachs and Mitch Kapor to work for Lotus Development to develop what became Lotus Symphony. Ozzie left Lotus Development in 1984 and founded Iris Associates to create the product later sold by Lotus as Lotus Notes. Iris Associates was acquired by Lotus in 1994 and Lotus itself was acquired by IBM in 1995.

Ozzie worked there for several years before leaving to form Groove Networks. Groove was acquired by Microsoft in 2005 where Ozzie became one of three Chief Technical Officers. That year he wrote a seven-page 5000-word internal memo titled The Internet Services Disruption: "It's clear that if we fail to do so our business as we know it is at risk ... We must respond quickly and decisively."1

On June 15 2006 Ozzie took over the role of Chief Software Architect from Bill Gates.1

In October 2009 he founded "FUSE Labs" (Future Social Experiences) within Microsoft to focus on innovation around future social web experience.

Ozzie announced his plans to step down from his role at Microsoft on October 18 20101 and his final day was December 31 2010. See also Windows Pioneers References a b c d "Microsofts Top Software Architect a Cloud Computing Advocate Quits". New York Times. October 18 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/technology/19soft.htmlsrcbusln. Retrieved 2010-10-19. "... Heralded as one of the worlds great programmers Mr. Ozzie before working for Microsoft steered the creation of Lotus Notes a popular e-mail and collaborative workspace software package. Then during the dot-com boom he started Groove Networks another collaboration software maker that swapped data using more modern techniques. ..."  External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ray Ozzie Analyst view on India Infoline Interview about Groove. Microsoft press release on Groove acquisition with quote from Ozzie Ray Ozzie's detailed work history Ray Ozzie's pre-Microsoft Weblog Microsoft Press Release Announcing Ozzie taking on position of Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie Review An employee's account of a 'Ray Ozzie' review Lotus Notes home page. v d eExecutive officers of Microsoft Corporation Board of Directors Bill Gates (chairman)  Steve Ballmer  Dina Dublon  Raymond Gilmartin  Reed Hastings  Maria Klawe  David Marquardt  Charles Noski  Helmut Panke Chief officers Steve Ballmer (CEO)  Peter Klein (CFO)  Craig Mundie (CRSO)  Kevin Turner (COO) Presidents and VPs Steven Sinofsky  Qi Lu  Don Mattrick  Andy Lees  Jon DeVaan (SVP)  Richard Rashid (SVP)  S. Somasegar (SVP) Persondata Name Ozzie Ray Alternative names Short description Date of birth November 20 1955 Place of birth Chicago Illinois U.S. Date of death Place of death