For what it’s worth, the news of Kai-Fu Lee’s departure was as much of a shock to us as to anyone else.  The last time we talked to him, he said he was going on sabbatical to write a book (in Chinese only) about “realizing your potential”.  He said he’d be back in September/October, though now it appears that was just his way of saying goodbye.

There are several reasons why his departure doesn’t affect SR at Microsoft:

• He wasn’t personally involved in much day-to-day work on SR and hasn’t been an individually significant force in the industry for many years.  He knows everything we're doing, of course, but it's not like he personally directed us.
• All of the other SR people, the ones doing the real research and product development, are still here; many of them been here since 1993—long before Kai-Fu joined.  The people in MSR (aka “the hottest computer lab in the world”) didn’t even report into him.
• Several of our most significant efforts, including much of what you’ll see in Longhorn, are largely complete.  We’re hard at work on the new stuff, and will continue no matter who’s in charge.

If you want more details, including excerpts from his book, check out his web site.