S. ‘Soma’ Somasegar, 1966-2026: The leader of Microsoft and Madrona was a champion of developers and innovators

US “Soma” Somasegar, a Seattle tech activist who led Microsoft’s Developer Division for part of his 27-year career at the company before supporting cloud computing and AI startups as an investor, board member and advisor, has died.

The news was confirmed Tuesday afternoon by Microsoft and Madrona, the Seattle company where Somasegar has been a key figure for the past 11 years.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who first met Somasegar at Microsoft in the early 1990s, remembered him in a statement as “an incredible leader who helped grow and shape Microsoft’s developer ecosystem, and a dear friend and colleague that I valued the most.”

“He brought depth, humility, and true dedication to empowering developers everywhere and his impact on Microsoft and the broader technology community will live on!” Nadella said.

Somasegar was 59 years old. He is survived by his wife, Akila, and two daughters.

“Soma was loved by many people in all aspects of his life, and he had a generous spirit to help others,” said Matt McIlwain, managing director of Madrona. “We are deeply saddened by this loss, which is especially important to his beloved wife and two daughters.”

McIlwain added, “We are focused on supporting his family, the Madrona team and all who knew and loved Soma, including the Microsoft community.”

On a personal level, Nadella and his wife, Anu, have developed close friendships with Soma and Akila over the decades. Nadella and Somasegar were among the group of technology leaders who own the Seattle Orcas, a professional cricket team based in the region.

“For Anu and I, this loss is personal,” Nadella said. “Soma was there for us during the most difficult times in our lives, always with a quiet strength, kindness, and sense of constancy that we relied on. We will miss him dearly.”

From Puducherry to Seattle

He was born on Aug. 13, 1966, in the southern Indian coastal town of Puducherry, Sivaramakrishnan Somasegar – known throughout his life by the nickname “Soma” – grew up in a home where education came before everything else, according to a 2008 profile in Mint, India’s business newspaper. His father worked as a technician at a hospital, his mother was a stay-at-home mom, and neither had attended college.

“Food was a priority in our house because education was a priority,” Somasegar recalled in a 2024 oral history for the Microsoft Alumni Network. “Whatever little I have done so far, is a direct result of that.”

He came to the US in 1987 to pursue a master’s degree in computer engineering at Louisiana State University, mistaking “LA” on his entry form for Los Angeles. He only realized his mistake when the plane landed in New Orleans, he recounted in an oral history.

After 18 months at LSU, Somasegar enrolled in a PhD program at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He left after one tough winter semester to join Microsoft, arriving in Redmond in Jan. 23, 1989 – a day he remembers well decades later.

He joined the OS/2 team as an experimental software design engineer, working on memory management and file systems. Within six months, Microsoft’s partnership with IBM on the joint OS/2 project had dissolved, and Somasegar was drafted in March 1990 into what would become one of the most consequential projects in the company’s history: Windows NT.

Somasegar spent the first ten years at Microsoft on the NT team, ultimately contributing to eight releases of the Windows operating system, as recounted in GeekWire’s 2015 “Geek of the Week” profile. He went from software design engineer to lead tester to test manager.

During the NT years, Somasegar devised an all-night team stress-testing program and conducted daily reliability tests, arriving around 5:30 a.m. to walk the halls, leave yellow sticky notes on broken machines, and report the findings to the 9 a.m. bug meeting.

He also established the Microsoft India Development Center in Hyderabad in 1998, which has grown to become one of the company’s largest engineering operations outside the United States. Especially given his roots, he often cited the Indian effort as one of his proudest contributions to Microsoft.

By the time Windows Server 2003 shipped, Somasegar had risen to vice president. In December 2003, Microsoft’s then server and tools manager Eric Rudder asked him to take over the Developer Division – the group responsible for Visual Studio, .NET, and the tools used by millions of software developers.

Somasegar held this position for the next 12 years, eventually becoming executive vice president. Under his leadership, the division expanded its reach from Windows to mobile and the cloud.

In 2014, Somasegar was an internal advocate and leader of Microsoft’s decision to open source the .NET core server runtime and framework, a dramatic move that marked a major shift in the company’s approach to the wider developer world.

Transitioning to Madrona startups

Somasegar announced his departure from Microsoft in October 2015, and within weeks he joined Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group as a business partner. He was promoted to the position of managing director in January 2017.

At Madrona, Somasegar focuses on early stage investments in cloud infrastructure, developer tools, AI, and what the company calls intelligent applications.

He led or played a key role in Madrona’s investments in Snowflake, UiPath, Pulumi, Statsig, Common Room, Rhythms, and RelationalAI, among others. Several became multi-billion dollar companies. Statsig was acquired by OpenAI for $1.1 billion in 2025.

Somasegar has also served on the boards of UiPath and other portfolio companies.

He remained an active writer and commentator on the industry, including a guest post for GeekWire in February 2024 that featured Satya Nadella’s decade as Microsoft CEO and their friendship that began at Microsoft in 1992. He conducted interviews and served as the main stage manager for Madrona’s IA Summit in downtown Seattle last fall.

Just this week, Somasegar was named to Business Insider’s Seed 100 list of the best early-stage investors of 2026.

Outside of venture capital, startups and technology, Somasegar was deeply involved in Seattle’s sports and cultural community. In addition to owning the Seattle Orcas, he was part of the Seattle Sounders FC ownership group.

Ed Lazowska, a longtime professor of computer science at the University of Washington and active in the Seattle tech community, said Somasegar’s spirit is in keeping with a tradition that goes back to Madrona’s early days.

“Soma was an amazing person, in the tradition of the four founders of Madrona,” said Lazowska, referring to Tom Alberg, Jerry Grinstein, Bill Ruckelshaus, and Paul Goodrich.

In one of his last extended interviews with GeekWire, recorded earlier this year at Madrona’s 30th anniversary, Somasegar reflected on the firm’s role in the region and its philosophy of being a “trusted partner” to founders from day one.

He talked about being part of the first Madrona-led efforts during the violence that helped raise more than $25 million for the All In Seattle campaign to support those affected by homelessness and other community needs.

“We have a day job. We want to be the best guys in the business,” he said. “But we’re all about the community. We’re about accepting the community.”

Nadella said he will miss Somasegar’s “warmth, thoughtful advice, and integrity in everything he did.”

“Our thoughts are with Akila and her daughters, and everyone who had the privilege of knowing her,” he said. “He will be greatly missed and remembered for all that he has done and contributed to our industry and our community.”