Amazon has hired former Windows Phone general manager Charlie Kindel to lead a top secret project at the e-commerce giant. In a post on his LinkedIn profile, Kindel said he is building a new team that is going after a totally new area for Amazon. As such, he will be hiring cloud and mobile developers and testers, program managers and product managers.
Just to clarify, this isn't an April Fool's joke. While the former executive did post a gag on his website about being hired by Amazon to lead a home server initiative, he has separately confirmed the news with GeekWire. He told the publication that Amazon presented him with an opportunity to build something that has ginormous potential and he simply couldn't pass it up. What's more, Kindel said he is excited to work in a principled and customer-focused company like Amazon.
Kindel left the Windows Phone team in 2011 to create a startup called BizLogr. The company created MileLogr, an automated tool that uses your calendar to create mileage logs which can be useful when calculating per-mile deductions for the business use of your car. His new role at Amazon will force him to step down as CEO and hand the reins over to technical co-founder Stefan Negritoiu. Kindel will remain with the company as founder and owner, however.
During his time at Microsoft, Kindel worked in several other areas outside of the Windows Phone team including Windows Home Server, Windows Media Center and even as a technical advisor to the head of the company's Server & Tools Business.