Former Microsoft Windows boss Terry Myerson is now an investor with two jobs

Terry Myerson
Microsoft

• Former Microsoft executive Terry Myerson has resurfaced
  six-months after leaving the company by announcing his new career
  as an investor.
• He’s joining two investment firms, he said in a post on
  LinkedIn.
• He looks fit and sounds happy and relaxed: not what he was
  known for while he was at Microsoft.

Former Microsoft executive Terry Myerson has resurfaced from a
seven-month hiatus by announcing his new career as an investor.
And he’s working two jobs to do it. 

Myerson is joining Madrona, a prominent Pacific Northwest VC most
famous for backing Amazon. Others in its portfolio include Redfin
and Snowflake (the latter is a hot enterprise storage startup run
by former ‘softie Bob Muglia). 

Myerson is also joining private equity firm the Carlyle
Group. Carlyle was where former Intel exec Renee James
landed after she left Intel. Carlyle
eventually helped her finance her own chip startup, Ampere.
James raved about Carlyle to Myerson, he wrote. They knew each
other from their days working as partners on Windows and Intel (a
partnership so famous, it had its own couples name: Wintel).

Both gigs are part-time positions, he said in a post on LinkedIn.

Rather than choosing between jobs, he talked them into creating
roles for him at both. They play at opposite ends of the
investment spectrum with Madrona making early bets and Carlyle in
late, so he views his jobs as complementary, not competitive.

He spent his time off training for a triathlon that relaxed the
‘cadence’ in his brain

Myerson was a somewhat controversial figure at Microsoft. He
joined when Microsoft, still run by Bill Gates in those days,
bought his startup. He became a powerful exec who worked his way
up the ranks over 22 years by running the Exchange email product,
Windows Phone and finally Windows. He was known as an astute
politician and a tough and demanding boss during the Gates and
Ballmer years, when all of Microsoft was political and tough.

Ultimately, he left Microsoft during one of Nadella’s
reorganizations, when the company split his Windows group into
two, writing a
heartfelt good-bye memo to the troops. In the memo, he
said he planned to train for a big race, learn to play an
instrument, and spend more time with his family. 

The tone of Tuesday’s LinkedIn post is happy, and he looks fit
and trim in the pictures he posted in it. That’s a big change
from the big guy he was at Microsoft.

During his time off, to his own amazement, he even completed a
half Ironman triathlon.

“The hours of training helped reset the impulses in my brain to a
more relaxed cadence (probably akin to doing several hours of
meditation per day). After having gotten so out of shape during
the peak intensity of my Microsoft years, it felt amazing to
complete this race in seven hours. I know, it’s hard to believe
even for me,” he writes.

He also joined the board at Duke and is working with a
non-profit. And he hasn’t ruled out another full-time role. He
simply said he wasn’t ready for one yet.

Myerson did not immediately respond to a request for additional
comment.

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