Dr. James Truchard, better known as Dr. T, has been at the helm of National Instruments since the company’s formation in 1976. It’s grown from a startup to over $1 billion with more than 7000 employees. But there’s a big change afoot. How big a change that is is yet to be seen.

Dr. T has decided to step down as the company’s CEO, although he will remain involved, which comes as no surprise. Dr. T was clearly involved in the inner workings of National Instruments, and it never surprised any of the employees to see him lurking around the engineering department, even taking a seat at one of the test benches.

What this change will mean to the company is exactly the question I posed to Shelley Gretlein, the company’s Vice President of Corporate Marketing.