4 Microsoft Executives to Leave in Top-Level Shake-Up
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SEATTLE — Four senior Microsoft
executives, including Stephen Elop and Mark Penn, will leave the
technology company, in the biggest organizational shake-up yet under
chief executive Satya Nadella.
In an email sent to Microsoft employees
on Wednesday morning, Mr. Nadella said three of the departures were
related to his decision to organize the company’s engineering efforts
into three groups. The three executives leaving as a result are Mr.
Elop, the former chief executive of Nokia who has been leading
Microsoft’s devices group; Eric Rudder, the leader of its advanced
technology and education efforts; and Kirill Tatarinov, the head of its
business solutions group.
“To
better align our capabilities and, ultimately, deliver better products
and services our customers love at a more rapid pace, I have decided to
organize our engineering effort into three groups that work together to
deliver on our strategy and ambitions,” Mr. Nadella said in the email.
Mr. Nadella was named the chief executive of Microsoft in February 2014.
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The
group Mr. Elop had been leading will be folded into a Windows and
devices group that will be overseen by Terry Myerson. Mr. Tatarinov’s
group will become part of a cloud and enterprise team led by Scott
Guthrie. Qi Lu, the head of Microsoft’s applications and services group,
will take over the education initiatives formerly led by Mr. Rudder.
Mr.
Nadella said that Mr. Penn, Microsoft’s chief strategy officer,
informed him several months ago that he planned to leave Microsoft in
September to form a private equity fund, among other pursuits. While Mr.
Penn has worked for Microsoft for a number of years, he is best known
as a former campaign strategist for Hillary and Bill Clinton.
Mr.
Penn on Wednesday announced that his new firm, the Stagwell Group,
would invest in advertising, research, data analytics, public relations
and digital marketing services. The firm has raised $250 million in
investment capital and can make up to $750 million in acquisitions using
leverage. Steven A. Ballmer, the former chief executive of Microsoft,
is a major investor in the Stagwell Group.
“I believe in the ability to invest, grow and even shake up firms in the marketing industries,” Mr. Ballmer said in a statement.
Courtesy: nytimes
