Public sector, regional, and product sales and marketing are among the organizations affected by recent organization changes. Discussed here are changes to the Microsoft corporate organization at the vice-presidential level and above since the Sept. 2004 online issue of the Directions on Microsoft OrgChart. All changes are reflected in the Dec. 2004 issue of the OrgChart.

New Leader for Public Sector Sales

The most notable change in the sales organizations is that Gerri Elliott has replaced Maggie Wilderotter as vice president, Worldwide Public Sector, responsible for all sales and outreach to government and education organizations. Elliott was formerly vice president, Worldwide Industry Solutions Group, a position currently vacant. Elliott, who joined Microsoft in 2001 after 22 years at IBM, will take on Microsoft's expanded efforts to improve relations with governments, which are key to combating piracy and open-source competition as well as a major market in their own right. Wilderotter has left the company after two years to become CEO of Citizens Communications, a phone company operating in 23 U.S. states.

Some other changes in the sales organization are as follows:

Jens Moberg has been named vice president for Northern, Central, and Southern Europe. He continues to report to Jean-Philippe Courtois, senior vice president of the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region. The move adds subsidiaries in Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, and Sweden to Moberg's responsibilities.

Klaus Andersen, who was previously responsible for northern Europe, has moved to a new role as vice president, Business Solutions, EMEA, where he will drive strategy for Business Solutions in the region and supervise the unit's development center in Vedbaek, Denmark. Andersen will report to Senior Vice President Doug Burgum, who heads the Business Solutions unit.

Walter Puschner has been hired as vice president, Customer and Partner Experience, EMEA. Puschner will supervise the company's ongoing campaign to improve customer and partner satisfaction in the region, which includes awarding bonuses to employees based on satisfaction scores. He reports to Neil Holloway, vice president of Sales, Marketing & Services within the EMEA region. Puschner comes to Microsoft from Hewlett-Packard where he was managing director of its EMEA subsidiary, and before that he was responsible for customer satisfaction and business process improvement initiatives at Compaq and Dell.

Eduardo Rosini has been named vice president for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, reporting to Worldwide Sales, Marketing, and Services Group Vice President Kevin Johnson, with responsibility for subsidiaries in Australia, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. He replaces Sanjay Mirchandi in this role, who will become vice president of Enterprise Services, Asia. Rosini was previously a vice president in the Home and Entertainment Division and responsible for the division's sales and marketing in EMEA.

Ching Feng Liao has been hired as vice president, Sales, for the Greater China region. He will be responsible for sales in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. He will report to Timothy Chen, who now has sales and marketing responsibilities that were formerly part of the APAC region and whose title is now CEO and vice president, Greater China region.

There have also been some changes in Worldwide Services and Information Technology, the consulting, product support, and IT organization headed by Vice President Rick Devenuti, as follows:

Lindsay Sparks has been named vice president, Managed and Technical Solutions, reporting to Rick Devenuti; Sparks was formerly responsible for Microsoft's midmarket sales strategy, a role now held by Vice President John Lauer.

Norm Judah has become vice president and chief technology officer for the entire Worldwide Services and IT organization; reporting to Rick Devenuti. Judah was formerly chief technology officer for Microsoft Consulting Services.

Sanjay Mirchandi has become vice president of Enterprise Services, Asia, where he will be responsible for consulting in the Asia-Pacific, Greater China, and Japan regions and will report to Vice President Rick Devenuti.

New Faces in Product Group Sales and Marketing

Leading the changes in the company's product development groups are two new hires in sales and marketing functions:

Craig McCollum has been hired as vice president, Business Solutions Sales Strategy. McCollum will be responsible for worldwide sales strategy for the Business Solutions division, which produces the Axapta, Great Plains, Microsoft CRM, Navision, and Solomon business applications. McCollum comes from Business Solutions competitor Sage/Best, where he held several positions, including senior vice president and general manager of Best Software’s Accounting Solution Division. McCollum will report to Senior Vice President Orlando Ayala, who heads up Microsoft's sales strategy for small and mid-size businesses, as well as operations for the Business Solutions group.

Jane Boulware has been hired as vice president of MSN global marketing, replacing Rich Bray. Boulware comes from Kimberly-Clark, a large consumer products company, where she was vice president of marketing services and led many of the company's brand marketing efforts. Boulware will report to Vice President Judy Gibbons. Bray's new role has not been determined.

The following moves in the product groups are also worthy of note:

Todd Holmdahl has been promoted to vice president, Xbox Product Group, from general manager. He continues to report to J Allard, Xbox Division vice president. Holmdahl’s group will be critical to Microsoft's efforts to reduce manufacturing costs on the next Xbox game console.

Amir Madjidimehr is vice president of the Digital Media Division, not general manager as listed on OrgCharts published earlier this year.

Brian Roberts has been promoted to vice president, Corporate Development, where he will lead acquisitions, investments, joint ventures, and divestitures. That unit, which reports to Chief Financial Officer John Connors, is likely to pick up more work: Executives have suggested that the company is looking for additional strategic investments and acquisitions to deploy the cash left after its recent dividend payout.

Rogers Weed has been named general manager, Home and Retail Division. He will report to Vice President Lisa Brummel and manage development and marketing for Digital Image Suite, Encarta, Money, and Works. He formerly led Windows Client division strategy and special projects.

Resources

Microsoft's IT organization was outlined in "How Microsoft Organizes IT" on page 31 of the Nov. 2004 Update.

The product support and consulting organizations are surveyed in "Understanding Microsoft’s Worldwide Support Organization" on page 31 of the Oct. 2004 Update.

Major Business Solutions organization changes were described in "Reorganization, Outsourcing at MBS" on page 27 of the July 2004 Update.