J Allard (born James Allard, on January 12, 1969 in Glens Falls, New York) is the chief executive officer of Project 529, a company that builds software for cyclists and law enforcement. Prior to starting Project 529, Allard was chief technology and experience officer for the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. He was instrumental in bringing Microsoft into the Internet age, leading the development of Internet technologies for Windows, and oversaw the company's first foray into the video game industry. Allard shipped over 30 products during his tenure at Microsoft and was a founding member of many Microsoft businesses, including Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Windows NT and the TCP/IP product families. Education Allard is a 1991 Boston University graduate with a bachelor's degree in computer science. In 2003, he received the Distinguished Alumni award and delivered the CS department commencement address. He later received an honorary degree (Doctor of Letters) from Boston University at the 2009 Boston University commencement ceremony alongside Larry Bird and Steven Spielberg. In 2019, Allard was awarded an Edmund Hillary Fellowship (EHF) to New Zealand, joining a community of entrepreneurs and investors to create global change. Project 529 Allard started the 529 Garage bicycle registration service in 2014 in Portland, Oregon. Today Project 529 is the world's largest bike registration network, approaching two million registered bikes. The service is used by bicycle owners, cities, law enforcement, universities and bike shops as a registration, reporting and recovery program. Since launching the first official test city of Vancouver, Canada in 2015, bike theft has dropped over 35% and thousands of stolen bicycles have been reunited with their owners. The program is now rapidly expanding throughout North America and has captured the attention of the World Bank. Microsoft Allard joined Microsoft in 1991, recruited from Boston University as a Program Manager on the LAN Manager team overseeing the network protocol efforts and NDIS program. The former chief experience officer is best known for developing the Xbox product family, as well as his 1994 memo, "Windows: The Next Killer Application on the Internet", encouraging the Microsoft team to embrace the Internet. The memo, distributed to Microsoft leaders, captured the attention of Bill Gates and is cited for reshaping the company's direction, earning Allard the reputation as "Microsoft's Father of the Internet." According to an internal email, Allard was a network engineer responsible for convincing Microsoft to ship TCP/IP