Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) said Tuesday that Jon Shirley has decided not to seek re-election to the company's board of directors at its annual shareholder meeting in November, thus ending a 25-year stint with the software giant.
Shirley joined Microsoft as president, chief operating officer and a director in August 1983. He retired from Microsoft in 1990 but remained a director.
"Having turned 70 years old this year, I'm at a point in my life where I want to reduce my professional commitments and allow more time pursuing some of my personal interests," Shirley said in a statement.
Shirley will remain on the Microsoft board through November 2008.
The other members of the Microsoft board are chairman Bill Gates, CEO Steven Ballmer, former Harvard professor James Cash Jr., former JPMorgan CFO Dina Dublon, former Merck CEO Raymond Gilmartin, Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings, August Capital general partner David Marquardt, former AT&T vice chairman Charles Noski and former BMW chairman Dr. Helmut Panke.
Born in San Diego in 1938, Jon Shirley graduated from The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and then attended MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Shirley worked with Tandy Corp. for 25 years in many positions, last as vice president Computer Merchandising when he left in 1983 to move to Seattle and become president, chief operating officer and a director of Microsoft.
Shirley is also a director of Manzanita Capital, a private financial services company in Seattle.
Shirley was in the news when he refused to upgrade his second computer to Windows Vista after upgrading his first.
Microsoft shares, which have traded in a range of $26.87 to $37.50 over the past year, clsoed Tuesday's regular trading session at $28.80, down 13 cents and lost an additional 3 cents in after hours trading.
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