Barely two years after he joined Microsoft here in Cambridge, MA, to launch its new Startup Labs, Reed Sturtevant is leaving the company to “pursue other interests,” Microsoft announced today.
Sturtevant’s departure was part of a broader announcement that Ray Ozzie, to whom Sturtevant reported, had reorganized his group to create the new Future Social Experience (FUSE) Labs, which will be focused on social computing. The lab will be headed by Lili Cheng, and will take the Microsoft Startup Labs in Cambridge under its auspices, along with another group previously part of Ozzie’s organization, the Rich Media Labs.
“FUSE Labs’ team will explore new social, real-time and media-rich applications and services that add value to existing products, or could be released on their own,” Microsoft said in a statement. “By combining these teams under a single leader and mission, Ray believes FUSE Labs can achieve greater impact through tighter focus and a more holistic approach. “
Sturtevant is a well-known and highly respected figure in New England computing, and beyond. He was most recently CTO at Eons before joining Microsoft to start the Startup Labs, an advanced development lab meant to help explore new ideas and speed them to market.
Sturtevant declined to comment on his departure, but you can read a lot about his background here.
Author: Robert Buderi
Bob is Xconomy's founder and chairman. He is one of the country's foremost journalists covering business and technology. As a noted author and magazine editor, he is a sought-after commentator on innovation and global competitiveness. Before taking his most recent position as a research fellow in MIT's Center for International Studies, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT's Technology Review, then a 10-times-a-year publication with a circulation of 315,000. Bob led the magazine to numerous editorial and design awards and oversaw its expansion into three foreign editions, electronic newsletters, and highly successful conferences. As BusinessWeek's technology editor, he shared in the 1992 National Magazine Award for The Quality Imperative.
Bob is the author of four books about technology and innovation. Naval Innovation for the 21st Century (2013) is a post-Cold War account of the Office of Naval Research. Guanxi (2006) focuses on Microsoft's Beijing research lab as a metaphor for global competitiveness. Engines of Tomorrow (2000) describes the evolution of corporate research. The Invention That Changed the World (1996) covered a secret lab at MIT during WWII. Bob served on the Council on Competitiveness-sponsored National Innovation Initiative and is an advisor to the Draper Prize Nominating Committee. He has been a regular guest of CNBC's Strategy Session and has spoken about innovation at many venues, including the Business Council, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.
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