Hello old friends! 

Happy holidays!

I hope this winter solstice finds your days long with cheer! Yep…after 14+ years at Microsoft, I’m calling it quits.   Having sent a mass e-mail earlier this week folks inside the company (a long standing tradition) – I’m mailing friends in small groups w/my exit news, updated e-mail address, and wishes for a great Christmas & New Year! 

What we’re up to… 

…6 work days left between now and Jan 18^th. 

…A long delayed (honeymoon) trip to South America starting on Monday (http://www.kristaandivo.com/SouthAmericaTrek/ - the website is a work in progress)  

After that, I’ll be splitting time between Seattle and Vancouver, as I start to figure out what I am up to next.  (Am thinking “small startup of some sort” – but who knows where that idea will go; ideas & suggestions welcome). Hope the holiday season finds you extremely well! Best wishes & hope to see you in the new year! 

                                                                                                                                                                Cheers, -ivo 

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(for the curious, my exiting mail to friends and colleagues here at Microsoft)

Dear friends and colleagues,

 It's been a great run for 14 years now, an education spanning….

….product design, marketing, research, development, testing,

….work in large organizations and small teams, several new products,  (developer tools, smart cards, mobile/embedded devices, consumer health)

….work in the Redmond, London, and Germany, and back in Redmond

….speaking to large audiences (PDC/TechEd), lobbying press and analysts (UK), writing and debugging code at 4AM (almost anywhere),

….making friends,

….learning from some of the best, brightest and most creative people I am ever likely to meet, and frankly at times dealing with some of the most difficult people I can imagine ;-).  

…it has all been great. 

It's time for something new, time to graduate, time for me personally to set out on new roads. Many thanks to all of you through the years – the experience has been unique, deeply rewarding and, frankly, life altering.  I hope only that I've been able to generate some small fraction of the heat, imagination and know-how that I've been the beneficiary of.  Please keep in touch; I will do my best as well. Krista and I will be taking a few weeks off over the holidays for a long delayed honeymoon, and then I will be back in the office Jan 14-18 to wrap up final things.

What's next for me? – I'm going to spend a short amount of time pondering that, and then hop into something…stay tuned.  .

                                                                Anything worthwhile is possible – best wishes to you all, -ivo