As rumored, Microsoft is having its first major executive shake-up under new chief executive Satya Nadella.
Tony Bates, former CEO of Skype and most recently executive vice president of business development and evangelism, is the most high-profile departure and will be replaced by Eric Rudder, who is currently executive vice president of advanced strategy, on an interim basis.
Microsoft is also losing Tami Reller, its executive vice president of marketing. In a letter to company employees, Nadella said he wanted a “single leader” to run all of Microsoft’s marketing and has decided to give Chris Capossela the position under the title of chief marketing officer.
“I have talked about the premium we need to place on getting very, very focused on things that we can uniquely do,” Nadella said. “How we articulate our value, how we market our message, how we deliver that value to customers through our advertising and other channels, all have to tie into an overarching strategy.”
Capossela will also continue his work as acting lead of the Consumer Channels Group until Microsoft appoints a successor.
Reller will stay at the company until he has transitioned into the new leadership role. Nadella said she will then take some time off before pursuing new projects outside the company.
Given the new responsibilities for Capossela, Nadella is making other adjustments to his leadership team. Mark Penn, formerly the executive vice president of advertising and strategy, has had the advertising part of his job stripped out – he’ll now just be Microsoft’s chief strategy officer.
“He will be a member of and an advisor to the senior leadership team and will continue to report to me,” Nadella emphasized.
Read Satya Nadella’s email in full here.
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