in Windows 95. Allard co-founded the Xbox project in 1999, primarily focused on the Xbox software platform, Xbox Live, and recruiting third-party developers and publishers to support the program. He was later promoted to the position of CTO and CXO of the Entertainment and Devices Division. This role had Allard building a unified design team, an incubation & prototyping team called Alchemie Ventures and new product development such as Zune, Kin and Courier. Throughout his career, Allard was an advocate for open standards serving on the Windows Sockets, IETF, IAB and W3C organizations. He often served as a media spokesperson for Microsoft as part of his product and standards work. Products Shipped LAN Manager (2.0, 2.1, 2.2, TCP/IP Utilities for LAN Manager, Remote Access for LAN Manager, Macintosh Services for LAN Manager, Windows Sockets 1.0, 2.0) Windows (Windows NT 3.1, 3.5, 3.51, 4.0, 5.0, TCP/IP for Windows for Workgroups, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT Option Kit) Internet Information Server (1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, Active Server Pages 1.0, 2.0, Active Data Objects 2.0, Microsoft Transaction Server, Microsoft XML) Xbox (Xbox 1.0, Xbox Live, Xbox 360, Xbox peripherals, XNA, Xbox Music) Entertainment & Devices (Zune 30, 4, 8, 80, HD, Zune Pass, Zune 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, Kin, Courier) Zune The Zune program started following the launch of the Xbox 360 in 2006. It was co-led by Allard (product) and Bryan Lee (business). When Lee stepped down in 2007 from his post as Zune Executive in charge of business development, Allard took over as the new executive. Allard oversaw development of the Microsoft Zune, a handheld portable media device, initially seen by some media as a potential iPod rival. The first generation Zune shipped in 2006 and sold more units than all non-iPod MP3 players sold in its first year. Kin The Microsoft Kin phone project, first known by the codename 'Project Pink', began under Allard in 2008. After an internal power struggle, control of the project was moved from Allard to Andy Lees, who headed the Windows Phone division. The project cost Microsoft US$1 billion and was discontinued on June 30, 2010 due to poor sales. Courier Allard headed up the team at Microsoft that created the two-screen tablet prototype and business plan called Courier. The Courier project did not receive funding by Steve Ballmer, who insisted that the product run Windows and Office. Shortly after Ballmer's decision to