Frank Ambrose, who was appointed Linden Lab's Senior VP of Global Technology in 2008, left the company last week. He joined LinkedIn's Linden Lab Alumni group then, is no longer listed among Linden Lab's managers and board members, and I just confirmed from him directly that he's indeed no longer with the company. The veteran of AOL was in charge of Second Life's grid infrastructure and stability, and his technical updates earned a lot of praise from many users, one dubbing him "an unsung hero of Linden Lab and Second Life". (His SL avatar was called "FJ Linden".)
This departure represents the second senior developer to leave the company in as many months: As I reported, Linden Lab's former head of marketing Kim Salzer left Linden last month.
What do these recent exits mean? Two likely possibilities:
Both Kim and Frank were hired by the company before Rod Humble was appointed Linden Lab's new CEO early this year, and it's often the case that senior VPs matriculate out as a new chief executive prepares to appoint his or her own hand-picked team. Alternately (or additionally), their departure could just be part of a larger trend, as Linden Lab moves farther away from its earlier idealistic (and pre-IPO track!) times, and longtime staffers look for new opportunities in the tech world. Besides them, many other Lindens have left the company (voluntarily and sometimes less so) since June 2010, when 30% of the staff was summarily cut.
In any case, stay tuned for more developments.
JP left the lab earlier this month as well.
http://cinderblocks.biz/goodbye-jp-linden
Posted by: Cinder Roxley | Monday, December 12, 2011 at 02:36 PM
(and pre-IPO) ?
Posted by: Chuck Baggett | Monday, December 12, 2011 at 02:58 PM
Sorry, I just tweaked that to "pre-IPO track". I mean the period roughly 2006-2008 when the company and industry watchers expected that LL was headed toward a IPO soon. But we're long past that time.
Posted by: Hamlet Au | Monday, December 12, 2011 at 03:21 PM
Um, on what planet is Kim Saltzer a "senior developer"? I mean, I suppose we could make a stretch for FJ: senior yes, developer maybe... but jeez.
Posted by: Maggie Darwin (@MaggieL) | Monday, December 12, 2011 at 03:51 PM
The new king means the old king's court gets the axe over the next year is the Valley tradition. I recall with the last CEO it was blood bath in the upper management of the lab so if anything Humble is being rather restrained.
Posted by: Emperor Norton | Monday, December 12, 2011 at 03:59 PM
Wow, that is I guess the silence before storm. I don't know much economic in depth about Second life but I had seen things like these happening in my first virtual world There.com before it closed and restarted with new features.
I am going to keep my fingers crossed and hope SL does not suffer from any setback.
By the way Mr Wagner, saw your interview on the program I,videogame :)
Good job :D
Posted by: Lazylover Aedipo | Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 12:39 AM
I expect that Rod already has his replacement lined up. Besides, three years in a tech company is quite a decent spell.
Posted by: Hitomi Tiponi | Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 05:08 AM
Its pretty much standard to ax the head of marketing when membership is flat, so I don't think that one is due to a change of regime. I had to question some of the marketing ads -- Be a Vampire? It implies that SL is a vampire-themed game which it is not.
Posted by: Ajax Manatiso | Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 09:54 AM
Ambrose is a big loss for the company - he was at AOL during my tenure at the company, and he was instrumental in improving the backend infrastructure of AOL, as much as he has at SL. He will be missed.
Posted by: Toxic Menges | Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 10:18 AM