Ray Ozzie, creator of Lotus Notes and now Microsoft employee has come into the corporation and really made a big difference.  I remember many years ago that Bill Gates stated that Microsoft had around 6 out of the top 10 programmers in the world working for it.  Ray Ozzie was one that didn't, and one that Bill desperately wanted to have in the fold.

Not only is it great to see the impact that Ray is having inside the company, but it is also refreshing to see the manner in which he is accomplishing this.  Of course, I also take pleasure in noting that Ray Ozzie is an alumnus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Here's a nice article from Fortune magazine that is a good read regarding Ray and his presence at Microsoft.  It is fairly long, but very good.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/05/01/8375454/index.htm