Gabriel Aul (born June 21, 1976) is a software engineer and computer programmer best known for his work leading the Windows Insider Program at Microsoft. He has led the development of Microsoft’s flagship operating systems since 2007, overseeing major releases including Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10.
Aul first joined Microsoft in 2006 as a program manager on the Windows Core Operating System Division team working on reliability and deployment initiatives. In 2008 he moved to the Client Experience Team where he was responsible for managing feature sets across multiple versions of Windows client products including Vista, 7 & RTM-8. In 2012 Aul was promoted to General Manager of Engineering Systems within the newly formed OSG division which included responsibility for retail engineering systems (RES), product activation servers (PAS), auto updates (AU) and customer service support tools (CSS).
In 2014 Aul took over as head of engineering for the Windows Insider Program which allowed users to get early access to unreleased builds of new features before they were released to general availability customers. As part of his role leading this program Aul established an active community engagement strategy that prioritized feedback from users with various levels of technical understanding so that key issues could be identified quickly and addressed efficiently resulting in improved quality prior to release into production environments.
Aul’s leadership throughout this process resulted in significant improvements in user experience satisfaction ratings while also allowing developers more time to focus on innovation rather than bug fixing prior to official release dates making him one of Microsoft’s most successful product leaders during his tenure there which lasted 20 years until he retired from full-time duties in 2019 focusing instead on other areas such as public speaking engagements related mainly around cloud computing technologies like Azure & Office 365 platforms as well as consulting activities advising startups through venture capital investments or incubation programs with assistance from foundations such as The Thiel Foundation or Y Combinator amongst others
