Microsoft speaker dies en route to TechEd New Zealand 2014

The Microsoft community was deeply saddened over the weekend to hear about the passing of Microsoft Exchange expert Andrew Ehrensing, who was scheduled to speak at the TechEd NZ 2014 event in Auckland this week.

Microsoft New Zealand Managing Director, Paul Muckleston, said: "Our hearts and thoughts are with Andrew's family and our Microsoft colleagues at this time. The Microsoft community is deeply saddened by his tragic passing and will remember his enormous contribution to our company and our people over the coming days."

Mr Ehrensing had worked for Microsoft since 2005. He was a highly-regarded speaker and known for his humor and delivery style at industry events such as TechReady, Ignite and Interact. Most recently he was a Solution Architect in the Americas Cloud Services organization, as well as being a Microsoft Certified Master.

It is understood that Mr Ehrensing had a heart attack during his flight from the US to New Zealand and passed away before the plane arrived in Sydney.

A close friend of Mr Ehrensing’s, Scott Schnoll, a Senior Content Developer for Microsoft who was also scheduled to present at TechEd NZ this week, will now remain in the US due to these unforeseen circumstances.

The following sessions at TechEd NZ 2014 will now be rescheduled with new speakers:

· OFC316 – Data Loss Prevention in Office 365 (Thursday, 11 September)
· OFC311 – Outlook Connectivity and Authentication (Thursday, 11 September)
· OFC306 – Exchange Server 2013 Architecture (Thursday, 11 September)
· OFC321 – Exchange Server Managed Availability (Friday, 12 September)