By John Fontana
Network World, 12/24/01

Eric Rudder draws comparisons to Bill Gates, and it's no wonder: He spent from 1997 to 2001 as Gates' technical advisor, two years longer than anyone has ever survived in the post. And Rudder, 34, is a geek at heart and a developer to the core. "Creating great software is what I get up and think about in the morning," Rudder says. "I love that you can think of something in your head and then make it "come alive' in a program."

He'll need that enthusiasm in the job of senior vice president of developer and platform evangelism, which he beganin October. Rudder heads the first and arguably most crucial step in Microsoft's .Net program, its current act in a long-running play of companywide technology shifts. He must educate, convert and nurture more than 6 million developers on .Net, the bet-the-company strategy to deliver software as a set of services over the Internet that Rudder spent those four years helping Gates devise. Converting developers has been the foundation of every Microsoft success. Now Rudder is a front-line general for the first major .Net product release - Visual Studio.Net. D-day is set for Feb. 13.

A developer's best friend

Few people at Microsoft would bet against Rudder.

"Eric understands developers deeply," says Dave Mendlen, lead product manager of Visual Studio.Net. "He was a key guy in building FoxPro and, more important, in creating an incredibly rabid community of [FoxPro] developers. To this day we don't have another customer base that is as passionate about their tool as the community that Eric fostered."

Rudder, one of 27 executives on Gates' Business Leadership Team, says he aims to engender that same passion among .Net developers, especially users of Visual Studio.Net, a product he helped create and regards as one of his major accomplishments. "One of the keys with FoxPro was communication with the developers. We really knew our customers," he says.

Being a good listener, Rudder says, also will define his management style - as will a few tricks. Rudder once bet a product team it couldn't get down to less than 20 bugs before he could drop 20 pounds. He lost the bet but also the weight. "Having the discipline to believe in something and having the discipline to invest in something until it pays off is definitely a lesson that I've learned from working with Bill," Rudder says.

A second Gates

While the unassuming Rudder would never compare himself to Gates, others do. Respect for Rudder's ability runs so deep that many people who now report to him lobbied for him to get the job.

"He is like Bill in a lot of ways. He has a passion for technology and the industry," says Marie Huwe, product manager for the .Net framework and Visual Studio.Net.

Like Gates, Rudder is known for his depth and breadth of knowledge, not only about Microsoft's products and strategies but also those of competitors. He's quick to determine the root of problems and is methodical in making sure everything is done right.

He also can be intimidating like Gates, shredding managers unprepared to defend their product developments during so-called "Bill reviews," a sort of tribunal before Gates. But far from grandstanding, Rudder views that process as creating challenges for others to exceed the possibilities to which he devotes so much thought.

It's another thing he learned from Gates. "One of the things I most admire about Bill is his ability to think about hard problems," Rudder says.

Rudder has solved many hard problems at Microsoft since arriving in 1988 as a magna cum laude graduate of Brown University with a bachelor's degree in computer science. Although he began writing his first Windows program by copying it out of a book, the transplanted New Yorker with a love for his hometown's amazing Mets was soon doing astounding things of his own. He started out running product teams, working on networking, Windows for Workgroups, FoxPro, Visual Basic and Visual Basic Script. He became the point man, devising strategies and directions for new products, then moving on to the next frontier.

Eventually, he became general manager for Visual Studio before Gates summonsed him.

About the only thing not amazing is his self-described "bricklayer" status on the basketball court, where he's often found working off stress. He may perfect his jump shot yet; no doubt he'll be spending lots of time on the court as he faces the demanding task of making sure developers are an ace in the .Net strategy.