Microsoft boss Satya Nadella told staff on Wednesday that he's appointing Judson Althoff to a new role as CEO of the company's commercial business, so that the big boss can concentrate on Redmond's future plans and strategy.
Althoff left Oracle nearly 13 years ago to join Microsoft as its executive VP and chief commercial officer. He set up the Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions (MCAPS) division to handle enterprise and partner sales, which Nadella called the company's "most important growth engine."
He will now oversee all of Microsoft's commercial operations, including sales, marketing, and operations. Nadella will keep his focus on engineering, including AI strategy, future technologies, and the datacenters that will support them.
However, Nadella will still be keeping his finger in commercial operations to an extent. COO Carolina Dybeck Happe will still report to him, but Microsoft's CMO Takeshi Numoto will now report directly to Althoff.
"This isn’t just evolution, it’s reinvention, for each of us professionally and for Microsoft," Nadella told staff in an email that the company also posted to its web site. "History shows that general purpose technologies like AI drive step changes in productivity and GDP growth, and we have a unique opportunity to help our customers and the world realize this promise."
Judson Althoff, no wonder he's smiling - Click to enlarge
The new role puts Althoff in a very powerful position at Microsoft, which is trying to balance its massive expenditures in fields like AI while cutting costs (and staff) elsewhere. Althoff has a proven record in driving sales and the expanded role will give him control of all the elements involved in Redmond's commercial operations.
Oddly, Microsoft made the announcement while Althoff was off campus. He's in Canada at a Microsoft AI Tour conference, part of Redmond's nearly year-long roadshow to convince businesses around the world why the software behemoth is the right bet for machine learning in the future.
"Microsoft is at our best when we marry our technology portfolio with customer needs today, while preparing them for the future. Every day, we aspire to get even better at tightening the feedback loop across product strategy, sales, support, marketing, and operations to deliver more value," Althoff said in a LinkedIn post.
"This is why I am excited and humbled to take on a new role as CEO of Microsoft’s commercial business, with new team members and new responsibilities. Together we will continue to strengthen our mission in the era of AI: to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more."
What's unspoken is that it also puts him in a good position to take over from Nadella, should he decide to step down at any point. Nadella has been in the role for 11 years and has given no hints of plans to step down but this move mirrors Larry Ellison's transition to CTO — retaining some control while delegating day-to-day operations.
Nadella said he is now "laser focused on our highest ambition technical work—across our datacenter buildout, systems architecture, AI science, and product innovation." He'll have the time on his hands to do it. ®
Source: The register