Github CEO Thomas Dohmke steps down

Github CEO Thomas Dohmke wants to step down. According to his statements, he plans to become active as a start-up founder again. The move comes almost four years after he took over as Chief Executive Officer in November 2021.

Dohmke founded the company HockeyApp in 2011, which offered a platform for app testing. He sold the idea to Microsoft and ended up working for the company himself. He later moved to Github, where he was involved in the acquisition by Microsoft together with Nat Friedman.

Retirement announced

Thomas Dohmke announced his retirement from Github on the Github blog on Monday of this week. There he briefly summarizes his career, his departure from Germany, the sale of his start-up to Microsoft, and some milestones at Github. He also states his motivation there: “But after all this time, my start-up roots have taken hold of me and I have decided to leave GitHub to become a founder again,” Dohmke writes there.

On LinkedIn, he also adds thanks to Satya Nadella (Chairman and CEO of Microsoft), Julia Liuson (Head of Microsoft's Development Department), and the Github employees known as “Hubbers.”

The Axios portal has also received information that Microsoft does not intend to immediately fill the vacant position of Github CEO. The head of Microsoft's CoreAI department, Jay Parikh, has announced a new structure in another memo, in which the Github management team will report to several Microsoft executives. Julia Liuson, for example, will oversee Github's revenue, technology, and support. Github's Head of Product Mario Rodriguez will report to Microsoft's AI Platform Vice President Asha Sharma.

According to Dohmke, he is leaving Github in good shape. More than 150 million developers are working on over a billion repositories and forks. Github is also a leader in the artificial intelligence market, with more than 20 million users: “Github has never been stronger than it is today.”

(dmk)