Gabriel Aul steps down as Windows Insider chief

Windows Insider chief Gabriel Aul, who has helmed the program for Windows 10 PC and Mobile going on 18 months now, has announced that he is stepping down from that role. In his place, Dona Sarkar, who has long been involved in Windows development, will take the reigns as the face of the program.

In a blog post, Aul notes that his decision to step away from being the face of the Windows Insider program was made so that he can focus more on his primary duties on the Engineering Systems team:

Over the past few months I've realized that I cannot give 100% to my main job on the ES, and also give 100% to the Windows Insider Program. And this program is so important to me that I really want to have the leader spending 100% of their time on it. So the time has come for me to pass the torch to a new leader for the program, and I'm thrilled to introduce you to her today. My attention will turn to being obsessed about our engineers at Microsoft as my "customers of the Engineering System." I get to take everything that's awesome about the Windows Insider Program and use it with our engineers internally. My goal is to ensure that we have the best engineering tools and processes in the industry, so that our engineers in WDG can respond that much more quickly to your feedback and suggestions, and deliver great new high-quality code to you in preview builds and released products.

Aul notes that he will still be involved in the Windows Insider program, albeit from a more behind-the-scenes role. In his stead, Dona Sarkar, who has been involved in Windows development since Windows Vista, will be the new face of the Windows Insider Program. Says Aul:

Dona is incredibly excited to take on this new role, and even when we first started talking about the possibility she was sharing great ideas and insights on where we can improve on the program going forward. She says that she has been "waiting for this job for 11 years".

If you're interested, you can read much more from Aul in his full blog post. For more, you can also follow Dona Sarkar on Twitter.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl