Gurdeep Pall, a long-serving corporate vice president at Microsoft, announced to his colleagues that he intends to retire from the company in September, The Information reported on Monday citing  people with knowledge of the matter.

The Information report added that a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed his coming departure via email, describing it as “a long-planned retirement.”

Throughout his career, Pall played a significant role in the development and promotion of important Microsoft products such as Windows, Skype, and Bing, 

Pall joined Microsoft in 1990 and worked in the company for 33 years . He has worked well together with previous CEOs Gates, Ballmer, and now Nadella. He often attends important product launches by Microsoft. 

He began his journey at Microsoft as a software engineer and contributed to the integration of TCP/IP, the fundamental software protocol of the internet, into Windows. After 2005, he was mainly responsible for the product and R&D department, development and management of Skype, Teams, Microsoft voice, mobile search, and Bing Maps.

Pall has been working on converting Microsoft’s research into products for their “industrial metaverse” division since 2016.  This division aims to help customers build software that automates control systems in areas such as power plants, factory robotics, and transportation networks.

He was also a  part of Microsoft’s project called Airsim, a drone simulation software product launched in July 2022, Information report mentioned. However, Microsoft cut costs through layoffs on this project and its current development is not known. 

The departure of Gurdeep Pall shows how Microsoft has focused its attention towards generative AI under the leadership of Kevin Scott, chief technology officer and executive vice president of AI.