Allaire Co-Founder Leaves Macromedia

Jeremy Allaire, the father of the Web development tool ColdFusion, has left his position as CTO of Macromedia, a company spokesman confirmed Tuesday.

Allaire, who officially left the company last week to pursue other interests, will continue to be involved with Macromedia as founder emeritus, the spokesman said.

"[Allaire will be] keeping active with our customer community, periodically writing and speaking on Macromedia's behalf, and also staying in touch with Macromedia management," he said. "We look forward to working with him for many years to come."

According to an internal memo attributed to Jeremy Allaire on the Web site www.internalmemos.com, the co-founder of Allaire Corp. is leaving Macromedia for a position as a "technologist/entrepreneur in residence" at a "Boston-area venture firm."

Allaire could not be reached for comment late Tuesday.

Allaire wrote in the memo that he is going to help the unnamed venture firm "find interesting opportunities, and then work with their early stage companies,"

He seemed positive about his time with both Allaire and Macromedia, and expressed optimism for the future of the San Francisco company. "Macromedia has evolved tremendously in those two years, reshaping itself and becoming that new software company," he wrote. "It's a force in the industry, recognized more than it ever has been."

He still holds a place on the speaker roster for the Macromedia show MXNorth.com, slated for March 14-16 in Toronto, according to the show's Web site.

In the mid-1990s, Allaire and his brother J.J. founded Newton, Mass.-based Allaire Corp, which greatly simplified Web content design and delivery with its ColdFusion development tool.

The company also was among the first to adopt the J2EE technology with its JRun application server, a product that was beginning to take off as a low-priced alternative to competing servers from IBM and BEA Systems when Allaire merged with Macromedia in March 2001. At the time, Jeremy Allaire was CTO of Allaire, a position he continued to hold after he joined company, which retained the Macromedia name.