Pallando had some important family issues come up that forced him to curtail his online presence (to the point to where he'll rarely get to play on his primary shard, let alone EM here) for the next 6 months or more.
So, he stepped down (but is welcome to come back into the program as an EM at a later date - though probably not here). Arwen, myself and several others, in a private meeting after the public farewell, told him that if he ever came back and wanted to play here, we'd set him up with anything he needed.