Soma Somasegar: Trailblazer of Microsoft’s Developer Tools, Dies at 59
Soma Somasegar, a longtime Microsoft leader who steered the Developer Division for 12 years and later became a managing director at Madrona Venture Group, has died at 59 with no cause disclosed. Nadella and Madrona issued tributes highlighting his impact on Microsoft’s developer ecosystem and Seattle’s tech scene, including his role in Windows NT and the India Development Center, and his advocacy for open-source .NET Core. After leaving Microsoft in 2015, he helped fund and mentor cloud and AI startups such as Snowflake, UiPath, Pulumi, Statsig and others, and remained active in the community through board work and local ventures like the Seattle Orcas and Sounders ownership. He is survived by his wife Akila and two daughters.