What you need to know
- Former Xamarin co-founder Miguel de Icaza will soon leave Microsoft.
- De Icaza has worked at Microsoft since 2016 when the tech giant acquired Xamarin.
- He has not decided where he wants to work next but will likely return to his startup roots.
Miguel de Icaza, the former co-founder of Xamarin and current Microsoft distinguished engineer, will leave Microsoft in the near future. De Icaza informed ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley of his decision on March 2, 2022. Before moving to a new role, De Icaza will take a break and spend time with his family.
De Icaza joined Microsoft when the tech giant acquired Xamarin in 2016. Xamarin creates cross-platform development tools that allow apps to share code across multiple platforms.
During his time at Microsoft, de Icaza held various roles. Most recently, he worked on the Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX), which is a standard for machine learning models. Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon all use ONNX.
Our AI runtime (OnnxRuntime) is now available on Android and iOS and powers some big MS features.
It allows more complete AI models to run on device, delegating pieces that can be hardware accelerated to CoreML/NNAPI, and runs the rest with our runtimehttps://t.co/IWv1IJpc13Our AI runtime (OnnxRuntime) is now available on Android and iOS and powers some big MS features.
It allows more complete AI models to run on device, delegating pieces that can be hardware accelerated to CoreML/NNAPI, and runs the rest with our runtimehttps://t.co/IWv1IJpc13— Miguel de Icaza (@migueldeicaza) December 15, 2021December 15, 2021
The former Xamarin co-founder isn't in a rush to start a new role. He told ZDNet that he is "going to rest while the kids are in school" and have a vacation with his family. With de Icaza's experience, he's in a position to pursue the perfect fit.
"Living in this industry is like the kid at the candy store - too many things are happening and there are too many choices. So I want to spend some time sampling some of the candy, and then deciding which one I want to buy a pound of," said de Icaza.
While de Icaza has not chosen a specific job to pursue, he is leaning toward returning to his startup roots. He told ZDNet that he was 99% sure that he'll work with a startup.
"If I wanted to work for a big company, I would have stayed [at Microsoft]. It is awesome here," said de Icaza. "I learned a lot, it was good, but I do miss the startup world, and building and running a team - which I have not been doing here in this role."
Microsoft has not confirmed de Icaza's final day in his role or if the company will fill the vacancy created by the departure.
Nat Friedman, a former CEO of Xamarin, left Microsoft in November 2021. Following Friedman's departure, many speculated that de Icaza would follow suit.
