Brad Chase to Leave Senior VP Post at MSN

Brad Chase, who spearheaded the launch of Microsoft Corp.’s popular Windows 95 operating system, will leave his post as senior vice president in charge of MSN’s technology and operations, a company spokesman said Tuesday.

Spokesman Matt Pilla said it wasn’t immediately clear what position, if any, Chase, 40, was planning to take with the company.

Chase is on vacation and could not immediately be reached for comment.

The change was not made public when the company announced a series of other executive shifts in its MSN division last week.

Chase made his decision about the same time as those staffing changes were announced, Pilla said.

“As we were considering these organizational tweaks he was looking at opportunities to move on to other things,” he said.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant’s consumer-oriented MSN division includes the company’s popular Web sites, browsers, Hotmail e-mail and instant messenger system.

The division will provide a critical customer base and Web presence for the company’s .NET strategy, a system of Internet-based software applications the company plans to launch over the next few years.

In the changes announced last Thursday, group vice president Bob Muglia was put in charge of the Personal Services Group, a division for creating subscription-based premium services for .NET that includes parts of MSN.

Microsoft Vice President Yusuf Mehdi was put in charge of the MSN and Personal Services Business Group, responsible for network programming, business development and sales and marketing of MSN’s software service efforts.

Microsoft rose $2.53 to close at $59.68 amid a rally on the Nasdaq Stock Market.