Former Microsoft Exec Steven Sinofsky To Moonlight At Box

Steven Sinofsky, the man who oversaw the development of Windows 7 and Windows 8, will be joining the enterprise cloud storage company Box as an advisor.

The new appointment was announced by Box CEO Aaron Levie, just days after Sinofsky accepted a part-time position at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

The former Windows division chief is considered to be one of the few people who could replace Steve Ballmer at the helm of Microsoft, once the current CEO retires in 2014. Time will tell if the new position will have an impact on his chances.

Super-Steve

During his 24 years at Microsoft, Sinofsky helped create various versions of Windows, Office, Internet Explorer and SharePoint, as well as cloud storage service SkyDrive (which will son change its name to something that doesn’t infringe BSkyB copyright). He left the company in November 2012, to be replaced by Julie Larson-Green and Tami Reller.

“It is impossible to count the blessings I have received over my years at Microsoft,” Sinofsky said at the time. “I am humbled by the professionalism and generosity of everyone I have had the good fortune to work with at this awesome company.”

Officially, the departure was a mutual decision, although some analysts blamed it on internal power struggles and friction with Ballmer. Now, Sinofsky will be advising a competitor to SkyDrive on matters related to business productivity.

“Steven has a stronger and more fluid vision for the future of computing than almost anyone I’ve met. As we kept talking and sometimes meeting over Pho, I realized we had to get him involved with Box,” wrote Levie. “We’re very excited to have him advising us as we hopefully bring the next generation of tools to the next billion workers.”

What do you know about Microsoft executives? Take our quiz!