Thomas Dohmke, who has led GitHub for nearly four years, officially announced his resignation on Monday, citing a return to his entrepreneurial roots as the reason for his departure.

In a heartfelt blog post titled "Auf Wiedersehen, GitHub," Dohmke explained that the urge to become a "founder again" was a driving force behind his decision to leave the Microsoft-owned platform.

"After all this time, my startup roots have begun tugging on me and I’ve decided to leave GitHub to become a founder again. GitHub and its leadership team will continue its mission as part of Microsoft’s CoreAI organization, with more details shared soon. I’ll be staying through the end of 2025 to help guide the transition and am leaving with a deep sense of pride in everything we’ve built as a remote-first organization spread around the world," Dohmke said,

He will remain in his post through the end of 2025 to facilitate the transition. Under his leadership, GitHub saw significant strides in AI-driven development tools, particularly through the expansion of GitHub Copilot, the doubling of AI projects on the platform, global growth, and the achievement of FedRAMP certification for US federal use.

"Together, we launched and scaled Copilot from a simple, but magical autocompletion tool to conversational coding with Copilot Chat & Voice, to reviewing and fixing code, to full-stack app creation with GitHub Spark. Today, GitHub Copilot is the leader of the most successful and thriving market in the age of AI, with over 20 million users and counting," he said.  

Concurrently, Microsoft is reorganising GitHub’s structure, according to a report by Axios. The company has decided not to appoint a successor CEO. Instead, GitHub will be folded into its new CoreAI organization, with leadership reporting to Microsoft executives, including Julia Liuson, overseeing GitHub operations, and Jay Parikh, head of CoreAI.

He closed his announcement with heartfelt appreciation. "Thank you, Hubbers. Being your colleague and your leader has been a great honor and I will cherish our many beautiful moments. Together, we’ve bent the arc of technology for the better," he concluded.