It looks like the reason we have not been seeing Stephen Elop in and around major Microsoft news events and announcements has become clear.
In a press release from Microsoft today, which announced a reorganization of engineering teams to align with the companies overall strategy, it looks like Terry Myerson is getting an even larger role at the company.
The overall changes result in three departures including Elop's and one unrelated to the reorganization.
Here is how the main changes were laid out by Microsoft:
Executive Vice President Terry Myerson will lead a newly formed team, Windows and Devices Group (WDG), focused on enabling more personal computing experiences powered by the Windows ecosystem. This new team combines the engineering efforts of the current Operating Systems Group and Microsoft Devices Group.
Executive Vice President Scott Guthrie will continue to lead the Cloud and Enterprise (C+E) team focused on building the intelligent cloud platform that powers any application on any device. The C+E team will also focus on building high-value infrastructure and business services that are key to managing business processes, especially in the areas of data and analytics, security and management, and development tools. As a part of this announcement, the company will move the Dynamics development teams to the C+E team, enabling the company to accelerate ERP and CRM work and bring it into the mainstream C+E engineering and innovation efforts.
Executive Vice President Qi Lu will continue to lead the Applications and Services Group (ASG) focused on reinventing productivity services for digital work that span all devices and appeal to the people who use technology at work and in their personal lives.
Terry Myserson has been the very public face of Windows 10 as it has seen its development process and progress laid out for nearly four million Windows Insiders and the rest of the tech world. It makes a lot of sense to connect the hardware and software development under one organization. of course, he and his team still need to deliver on Windows 10 but this is a big sign of trust in what has been accomplished so far.
With Elop's departure this marks his second exit from Microsoft. Previously he left the company in September 2010 to become the CEO of Nokia and eventually returned to Microsoft as part of the companies acquisition of Nokia for its Windows Phone business.
Kirill Tatarinov and Eric Rudder will also be leaving the company in this reorg process. Chief Insights Officer, Mark Penn, is leaving in September but that move is unrelated to these changes as he intends to look into other ventures.
The newly reorganized Microsoft Senior Leadership team looks like this:
- Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer
- Chris Capossela, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
- Kurt DelBene, Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Planning
- Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President, Cloud and Enterprise
- Amy Hood, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
- Kathleen Hogan, Executive Vice President, Human Resources
- Peggy Johnson, Executive Vice President, Business Development
- Qi Lu, Executive Vice President, Applications and Services Group
- Terry Myerson, Executive Vice President, Windows and Devices Group
- Harry Shum, Executive Vice President, Technology and Research
- Brad Smith, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Legal and Corporate Affairs
- Kevin Turner, Chief Operating Officer
The above changes are effective today however, the timeline for Elop, Rudder and Tatarinov to depart is listed as happening after a designated transition period.
What do you think? Are you surprised that Stephen Elop is gone?
