Microsoft's GitHub CEO resigns

Microsoft's GitHub CEO resigns

GitHub CEO Nat Friedman is stepping down after three years at the company. Friedman originally joined Microsoft after the company acquired Xamarin, which Friedman helped found. He took over as the head of GitHub when Microsoft acquired GitHub three years ago.

Friedman is now returning to his startup roots. "With everything we've accomplished, and more than five great years at Microsoft under my belt, I've decided it's time to go back to my startup roots," Friedman said in a GitHub blog post today. " “I look forward to my next adventure: supporting, mentoring and investing in founders and developers who are building the future with technology and tackling some of the biggest opportunities of our day.”

GitHub's Chief Product Officer Thomas Dohmke will now take over as GitHub's CEO on November 15, and GitHub will continue to operate as an independent Microsoft-owned business. Dohmke will report to Julia Levson, who is being promoted to president of Microsoft's developer division.

This is a change in the GitHub structure at Microsoft, as Friedman used to report to Scott Guthrie, Microsoft's head of cloud and AI. Julia Levson was recently at the center of a controversial .NET change that triggered an open source community backlash and forced the company to take a quick U-turn on its decision.

While there were some initial fears about Microsoft acquiring GitHub, the company has kept the business afloat without making major changes. Friedman responded to the firing of a Jewish employee at GitHub earlier this year, admitting that "significant mistakes were made." Microsoft also recently revealed that GitHub is now home to 73 million developers, up 2x since the company acquired GitHub in 2018.