Raymond "Ray" Ozzie (born November 20, 1955) is an American software industry entrepreneur who held the positions of
Chief Technical Officer and
Chief Software Architect at
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...
between 2005 and 2010. Before Microsoft, he was best known for his role in creating
Lotus Notes.
[
]
Biography
He grew up in Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, later moving to Park Ridge, Illinois
Park Ridge is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, and a Chicago suburb. Per the 2020 census, the population was 39,656. It is located northwest of downtown Chicago. It is close to O'Hare International Airport, major expressways, ...
and graduating from Maine South High School
Maine South High School (officially known as Maine Township High School South) is a public four-year high school located in Park Ridge, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Maine Township High S ...
in 1973 where, in 1969, he learned to program on a GE-400 mainframe and an Olivetti-Underwood Programma 101.
He received his bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...
in computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
in 1979 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Un ...
, where he worked on the PLATO system
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institut ...
, and began his working career at Data General Corporation where he worked for Jonathan Sachs
Jonathan Sachs (born June 25, 1947) is a programmer who co-founded Lotus Development Corporation with Mitch Kapor in 1982 and created the first version of the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet program. Sachs left Lotus in 1985 to develop photo-editing so ...
. 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
Mitchell David Kapor ( ; born November 1, 1950) is an American entrepreneur best known for his work as an application developer in the early days of the personal computer software industry, later founding Lotus, where he was instrumental in deve ...
to work for Lotus Development to develop what became Lotus Symphony. Ozzie left Lotus Development in 1984 and founded Iris Associates
Iris Associates was an American software development company founded in 1984. It developed the software for Lotus Notes (subsequently IBM Notes). Iris worked under contract with Lotus Development Corporation until 1994, when it was bought by Lot ...
to create the product later sold by Lotus as Lotus Notes, based in part on his experiences using the PLATO Notes group messaging system. Iris Associates
Iris Associates was an American software development company founded in 1984. It developed the software for Lotus Notes (subsequently IBM Notes). Iris worked under contract with Lotus Development Corporation until 1994, when it was bought by Lot ...
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 Networks was a software company based in Beverly, Massachusetts. Founded by Ray Ozzie, the creator of IBM's Lotus Notes application, the privately held company specialized in productivity software that allows multiple users to work collab ...
. Groove was acquired by Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...
in 2005, where Ozzie became one of three Chief Technical Officers. That year, he wrote a seven-page, 5,000-word internal memo
A memorandum ( : memoranda; abbr: memo; from the Latin ''memorandum'', "(that) which is to be remembered") is a written message that is typically used in a professional setting. Commonly abbreviated "memo," these messages are usually brief an ...
, 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."[
On June 15, 2006, Ozzie took over the role of Chief Software Architect from ]Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...
.[
In October 2008 Ozzie announced Microsoft Azure, the first project to emerge from his advanced development labs focused on new and potentially disruptive approaches to Microsoft's business. The project, originally known as "Red Dog", was led by Dave Cutler and Amitabh Srivastava. In January 2009, another project emerging from these labs, "Live Mesh", received a Crunchie Award for best technology innovation. In October 2009 he also created ]FUSE Labs Microsoft's Future Social Experiences (FUSE) Labs was started by Ray Ozzie and is run bLili Cheng The group focuses on real-time and media rich experiences and is located in Bellevue, WA. It used to have offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Camb ...
(Future Social Experiences) within this advanced development unit, focusing on innovation in social experiences for mobile and web.
Ozzie officially announced his plans to step down from his role at Microsoft on October 18, 2010 and his final day was December 31, 2010. In 2011 he helped create the non-profit Safecast.
In January 2012 Ozzie started Talko Inc., a company that delivered mobile apps and services for business team communications primarily focused on those roles in which voice is essential. Talko was launched in September 2014. Ozzie has said that the name "Talko" was meant as an homage to Talkomatic
Talkomatic was an online chat system that facilitates real-time text communication among a small group of people. Each participant in Talkomatic has their own section of the screen, broadcasting messages letter-by-letter as they are typed. This int ...
, a popular group chat program he experienced while working on the PLATO System
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institut ...
in the 1970s. Ray sold the company to Microsoft in December 2015 with the intent to bring Talko's novel voice and productivity features to Microsoft's Skype.
In 2013, Ozzie joined the board of directors at Hewlett-Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...
, and continues to serve as a director of Hewlett Packard Enterprise
The Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE) is an American multinational information technology company based in Spring, Texas, United States.
HPE was founded on November 1, 2015, in Palo Alto, California, as part of the splitting of the ...
. He joined the board of Safecast in 2017.
In April 2020, Ray Ozzie raised $11 million for his new venture, Blues Wireless, an IoT company.
Awards and honors
Ozzie was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2004 for the conception and development of online collaboration products, including Lotus Notes.
See also
* Windows Pioneers
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ozzie, Ray
Microsoft employees
Grainger College of Engineering alumni
American chief executives
1955 births
Living people
Businesspeople from Chicago
People from Park Ridge, Illinois
American computer businesspeople
American chief technology officers