Microsoft CEO Nadella rejigs core team, Windows chief quits

Giving fresh impetus to his vision of achieving Intelligent Cloud and Edge, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has realigned duties of his core senior team, announcing that Terry Myerson, Head of Windows and Devices Group (WDG), was leaving the company.

Myerson and the WDG team transformed Windows to create a secure, always up-to-date, modern operating system (OS).

"His strong contributions to Microsoft over 21 years from leading Exchange to leading Windows 10 leave a real legacy. I want to thank Terry for his leadership on my team and across Microsoft. He will work with me on the transition over the coming months," Nadella said in an internal email to employees on Thursday.

Rajesh Jha, Executive Vice-President, Office Product Group at Microsoft, will lead Experiences and Devices that will include Windows, Office, third-party applications and devices into a more cohesive Microsoft 365 experience.

"Jha will expand his existing responsibilities to lead a new team focused on Experiences and Devices. The purpose of this team is to instil a unifying product ethos across our end-user experiences and devices," Nadella said.

Nadella announced the formation of two new engineering teams to accelerate innovation at Microsoft.

For Microsoft Devices, Panos Panay will serve as Chief Product Officer to ensure end-to-end devices business execution excellence.

"Joe Belfiore will continue leading our Windows experiences and will drive Windows innovation in partnership with the PC and device ecosystem," Nadella wrote.

Brad Anderson will continue to lead Windows Enterprise deployment and management efforts with even tighter alignment across Microsoft 365 and partner closely with EMS teams within Cloud + Artificial Intelligence (AI) Platform.

Scott Guthrie will lead the Cloud + AI Platform.

Jason Zander has been promoted to Executive Vice-President of Azure Cloud. The Windows platform team led by Harv Bhela, Henry Sanders and Michael Fortin will join Zander's team.

"For Business AI, the customer service, marketing and sales insights teams, previously led by Gurdeep Singh Pall, will join James Phillips' Business Applications Group," the Microsoft CEO said.

"I am thankful for Gurdeep's leadership in building these new AI solutions that are going to help differentiate Microsoft in this area," he added.

When it comes to AI perception and Mixed Reality (MR), Alex Kipman will lead the new team.

"This team will continue to build first-party products and the core building block cloud services for third parties on Azure," Nadella added.