Bill Baker has left the building...

Few people can call their boss their friend. In my case, he was both and more. Bill was a guy that I could talk to about anything. He was my mentor and opened doors for me in ways that I never thought possible. He's leaving Microsoft and I believe Microsoft is the worse for it.

You can read a little about him here:

https://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9111688

Bill hired me into the SQL Server team. He was my GM when I was just getting my feet under me as a developer. Later he was there when I needed a formal mentor. He was the one that provided the opportunity for me to begin a new business at Microsoft and supported the effort throughout the initial business plan development through to where we are today, building a brand new product in Office. There aren't a lot of people at Microsoft that get a chance to do something like that.

Thanks Bill and good luck!

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 08, 2008
  PingBack from http://blog.a-foton.ru/2008/08/bill-baker-has-left-the-building/

• Anonymous
  August 09, 2008
  I met Bill a number of times through the MVP program and at various SQL conferences and always felt better for it. I wonder if he hadn't pushed 'BI for the masses' for all these years would the SQL BI features be as good as they are?

• Anonymous
  August 09, 2008
  Most of those working directly for Bill paint a different picture. In the day to day work Bill is rude, distrustful and damaging to his own team. He simply had done so much damage he was not left with enough people in the team to be able to deliver. Bill had lost his support inside of MS and had to go. MS is a better place without Bill.

• Anonymous
  January 24, 2009
  To Brady, I think that there are some who felt that way about Bill. I can't speak to those experiences. I never witnessed Bill behave that way. I did however witness some pretty boneheaded behavior by some of the people that worked with Bill and watched him patiently try to correct it...