Who's Still Around at Microsoft Cambridge?

In the wake of Wednesday's lay-offs at Microsoft, which affected several big names at the company's New England Research & Development Center, my big question today was, who's left?

The biggest name to be sent packing Wednesday was Don Dodge, who has been one of Microsoft's main links to the start-up and developer community -- both in New England and nationally. (An item on TechCrunch yesterday was titled, "Microsoft Loses Don Dodge: This is a Huge Mistake," and it attracted 200-plus comments.)

Allison Parker was also laid off, only a few weeks after Reed Sturtevant, her boss at Microsoft's Startup Labs technology development group, was let go.

With those three, Microsoft shed some of its strongest connections to the New England community.

So who's still there in a senior position?

Jennifer Chayes is still in charge of Microsoft's research group in New England, and Angie Anderson leads a product unit that oversees some of Microsoft's virtualization offerings, including what used to be Softricity, a company Microsoft acquired. Ted McLean is still a general manager for New England, and Sara Spalding is the site director for Cambridge. Annmarie Levins is an associate general counsel for Microsoft who works out of the Cambridge office.

I'd been wondering why Sturtevant and Dodge had been swept out in these layoffs; both had worked closely earlier in their careers with Ray Ozzie, the former Lotus and Groove Networks exec who is now Microsoft's Chief Software Architect.

Apparently, being Chief Software Architect (once Bill Gates' title) isn't quite the same as being responsible for product lines that generate actual revenue, and so Ozzie may not have been able to save his old pals from this round of cost-cutting.

Your thoughts?