Ken DiPietro has been named vice president of human resources at Microsoft, replacing the retiring Deborah Willingham. DiPietro will report directly to CEO Steve Ballmer, and will likely spend considerable time working with Ballmer to address employee morale and engineer long-term changes to the company's culture. DiPietro comes to the company from Dell, where he was vice president of human resources for the Americas. He will work on the transition with Willingham through Feb. 2002.

Topping DiPietro's to-do list will be keeping employees motivated at a time when many employee stock options are under water. This job could become even more challenging if IT spending begins to recover later in 2003, giving the company's strongest employees new job prospects. DiPietro will also work with Ballmer on his long-term project to promote a new set of "core values" for employees, with the goal of improving the company's relationship with customers, partners, and the public. (See "Ballmer Urges Responsibility, Excellence" on page 22 of the July 2002 Update.)