Charlie Kindel, the Seattle tech veteran who left his job as a Microsoft Windows Phone general manager in 2011 to join the startup world, has now been hired by Amazon.com as the director of an undisclosed project inside the company.
“I’m building a new team going after a totally new area for Amazon. I’m hiring cloud and mobile developers and testers, program managers, and product managers, he writes on his LinkedIn profile, which describes the position as director of “something secret.”
No, this is not an April Fool’s joke. Kindel did publish an April Fool’s post today about Amazon hiring him to head the “Amazon Kindle Charlie” home server initiative, but he noted at the top of the post that part of what followed was true, and he separately confirmed to GeekWire that he has, in fact, joined Amazon.
With the new role, Kindel has stepped down as CEO of his startup BizLogr, which makes an automated mileage reporting tool called MileLogr. He will remain a founder/owner, but he says he will mostly disconnect from the startup, and his technical co-founder, Stefan Negritoiu, will take the reins.
Kindel explains, “Amazon presented an opportunity to build something new that has ginormous potential. I simply couldn’t pass the opportunity up. As a double bonus, the idea that I can work in such a principled and customer focused company is really exciting to me.”
He said he wasn’t able to go into any further detail about his new position.
Kindel’s last postion at Microsoft was as general manager of the Windows Phone app platform and developer experience, but he worked in a variety of other areas, including Windows Home Server, Windows Media Center and technical advisor to the head of Microsoft’s Server & Tools Business.
Amazon has been reported to be working on its own Android-based smartphone, but the company hasn’t officially confirmed any plans along those lines.
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