Veteran Microsoft executive Ron Markezich, who was once the company’s CIO among various leadership roles, is leaving after 24 years. Markezich, who revealed his planned departure on Thursday, is leaving for a new opportunity, though he didn’t elaborate.

Microsoft’s Ron Markezich

As Microsoft’s CIO in the early 2000s, Markezich ran the company’s IT infrastructure, which included piloting and implementing new products. After serving as CIO, he transitioned to the team that incubated Office 365 as corporate VP for Microsoft Online. Markezich was later corporate VP for U.S. enterprise sales and then led marketing for Microsoft 365.

“My decision to leave Microsoft was difficult, but I have an opportunity to help transform an industry with an innovative technology platform and deep experts, which I will share more soon,” Markezich wrote on LinkedIn.

Over a decade ago, well before COVID, Markezich was already talking up remote work.

“So much of business was built around the workplace,” he stated in a May 2011 press release. “But over the past few years, technology has made it so people can be more productive spending part of their time working remotely.”

When Microsoft’s end of support date for Windows 7 and Office 2010 was nearing, Markezich encouraged partners to transition customers from perpetual licenses to Microsoft 365.

“This move over the next three years represents a $100 billion opportunity for all of our partners,” he said during a keynote at the Microsoft Inspire conference in 2018.

During the past three years, Markezich was corporate VP for worldwide commercial pricing and licensing. Notably, Microsoft this week revealed new licensing terms for its Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program. The new terms, effective next month, will offer expanded use rights, according to Microsoft chief partner officer Nicole Dezen’s announcement.

It was not clear what role Markezich played in those changes. Markezich and Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But in his announcement on LinkedIn, Markezich hailed his long tenure at the company.

“Microsoft has constantly pushed me out of my comfort zone, which allowed me to continually grow and have multiple ‘once in a career’ experiences,” he noted.