• Illustration: Management Changes for Major Products

Windows, SQL Server, and Exchange are among the strategic products that have new managers in the wake of Microsoft's midyear review. While the technical teams for all of these products remain mostly unchanged, changes at the top could mean strategy shifts for future versions.

For a graphical overview of changes in the major product groups, see "Management Changes for Major Products".

New Windows, Database Leaders

The Platforms and Services Division, led by President Kevin Johnson, has seen a shuffle of business and marketing executives for the Windows client OS and a changing of the guard for SQL Server.

Veghte Drives Key Business

Bill Veghte has been named corporate vice president, Windows Business Group. He will have marketing and profit-and-loss responsibility for the Windows client OS business, the company's most profitable, although Steven Sinofsky continues to lead client OS development. Veghte most recently ran Microsoft's North American sales subsidiary (a position currently vacant), and he has also led marketing for Windows Server and run the company's embedded OS unit. Veghte will report to Kevin Johnson.

Mike Nash has returned from sabbatical for a new position as corporate vice president, Windows Client Product Management, reporting to Veghte. His organization will manage market research and product planning for the next version of the Windows client OS, as well as the OneCare PC security and management suite for consumers. Before his Apr. 2006 leave, Nash headed the company's Security Technology Unit, where he was responsible for Windows OS security technologies (such as access control mechanisms), as well as the Security Response Center that responds to security vulnerabilities. His new role will be a familiar one: Nash previously served as general manager of product management for Windows NT and 2000.

G. Michael Sievert has been named corporate vice president, Windows Client Product Marketing, and he will focus on marketing and promotion of Windows Vista, as well as future efforts to market Windows to consumers. Sievert, who will now report to Veghte, was previously responsible for Windows Client profit-and-loss and product planning, responsibilities he has handed over to Veghte and Nash.

Will Poole, senior vice president, Market Expansion Group, now reports to Veghte rather than Kevin Johnson. Poole's organization is responsible for antipiracy efforts and for selling Windows into emerging markets through new products (such as the Windows XP Starter Edition).

Joe Peterson, corporate vice president, Software Protection and Commerce Group, now reports to Veghte rather than Will Poole. His organization is responsible for antipiracy technology, such as the Software Protection Platform (the antipiracy technology of Windows Vista) and the Windows Genuine Advantage validation mechanism.

Former MSN Executive Takes SQL Server

Ted Kummert has been named corporate vice president, Data and Storage Platforms, replacing Paul Flessner who is retiring. Kummert will be responsible for development of SQL Server, as well as cluster, file system, and storage technologies. Kummert most recently spent a year in the Enterprise Access and Security unit, which is responsible for Internet Security and Acceleration Server and Windows Terminal Services and is now headed by General Manager Rakesh Narasimhan. Before that, Kummert spent a year leading a group responsible for BizTalk Server, Commerce Server, and Host Integration Server. Kummert joined the company in 1989 and has worked on a variety of products, including Windows NT, Windows CE, and interactive TV. From 2000 to 2004 he led MSN's Internet access and other subscription businesses, which struggled to find a winning formula and are now overshadowed by the unit's advertising-supported businesses.

Paul Flessner has left Microsoft. Flessner led SQL Server through three major releases including two—versions 7.0 and 2005—which entailed major internal redesigns. Flessner also led development of other critical server products, such as Exchange Server, and he once shared profit-and-loss responsibility for the company's Server and Tools division with Eric Rudder, before Rudder took sole responsibility in 2003. Both men struggled to ship SQL Server 2005, ultimately a six-year project that involved integration with the .NET Framework, Visual Studio, and Windows.

Other Platforms and Services Changes

Amitabh Srivastava has left the Windows division to become corporate vice president, Windows Live Core. He will work on online services and report to Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie. He joins a team that has recently added several of Microsoft's senior software architects, including David Cutler (the principal designer of Windows NT and 64-bit Windows), David Treadwell (who led the unit that developed the .NET Framework), and Amit Mital (who led development of the Live Meeting conferencing online service after its acquisition from PlaceWare). Srivastava formerly led core OS development for the Windows group, where he supervised substantial architectural work to simplify Windows maintenance and drove a comprehensive redesign of the Windows build labs. However, Windows Vista still required roughly five years to ship; most of that project's top engineers have now been replaced by a team chosen by Steven Sinofsky (senior vice president, Windows and Windows Live Engineering) and Jon DeVaan (senior vice president, Windows Core OS).

Robert Wahbe has been promoted from general manager to corporate vice president of the Connected Systems Division, which is responsible for application integration and communications technologies, including BizTalk Server, the Windows Communication Foundation messaging API, the Windows Workflow Foundation workflow engine, and Active Directory.

Christa Davies has replaced Brent Callinicos as corporate vice president and chief financial officer (CFO), Platforms and Services division, with financial reporting, business strategy, and acquisition responsibility for the entire division. Unlike Callinicos, she will not have responsibility for licensing and pricing companywide, a responsibility which now falls to Kevin Turner. Davies previously managed mergers and acquisitions for the Platforms and Services division before leaving to become CFO of the Online Services Division, a position now filled by Rik van der Kooi. Davies joined Microsoft in 1997 from ninemsn, a joint venture with Australia's Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, and she also worked for management consultant McKinsey and Company.

Brent Callinicos has left Microsoft. In addition to leading Platforms and Services division finance, Callinicos was responsible for all product licensing and led significant improvements in the company's licensing documentation and tools. Callinicos also served as the company's treasurer from 2000 to 2004.

Changes for Communications, Word

The Business Division of President Jeff Raikes has seen a major shakeup in the organization responsible for e-mail and voice communication products, along with the retirement of a longtime Office leader.

Communications Management Shifts

Gurdeep Singh Pall has replaced Anoop Gupta as corporate vice president, Unified Communications Group, responsible for development of the Communication Server (formerly Live Communications Server) voice and instant messaging product, its Communicator client, and other communications products. The Unified Communications group's scope has been reduced: Notably, the new group no longer manages Exchange Server development. The limitation of scope might be welcome to Pall, whose Communication Server and Communicator products are due for a major release in 2007. Pall joined Microsoft in 1990 to work on Windows networking (he co-developed the Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol for remote access) and came to lead product development at what was then called the Real-Time Communications organization in 2002.

Anoop Gupta has become corporate vice president, Technology Policy and Strategy, responsible for identifying strategic gaps in Microsoft's business and dealing with potential impacts of regulation and policy. He will report to Craig Mundie. A former Stanford University professor, Gupta joined Microsoft in 1997 and worked in Microsoft Research and as a technology assistant to Bill Gates before taking on the Unified Communications Group in 2003.

Dave Thompson, formerly responsible for Exchange development, has taken the new position of corporate vice president, Information Worker Enterprise Services. Thompson will be responsible for online services for midmarket and enterprise customers, including the Live Meeting conferencing service and the Exchange Hosted Services antivirus, antispam, and archiving offering. Thompson was an important architect of Windows Server before overseeing the development of Exchange 2007. General Manager Terry Myerson now leads Exchange development, reporting directly to division head Jeff Raikes.

Other Business Division Changes

Jeanne Sheldon has been named corporate vice president, Office Authoring Applications, replacing Peter Pathe. She will lead design and development of Word, OneNote, Publisher, and Works. Sheldon joined Microsoft in 1989 from Software Publishing Corp. and most recently led the Office Management and Update Services unit, which incorporated Office patching and other updates into the unified Microsoft Update online service.

Peter Pathe has retired from Microsoft after 16 years. Pathe led the development of the TrueType font technology and then joined the Word unit in 1993, leading the word processor to its current dominant position.

Jeff Teper has been promoted to corporate vice president, SharePoint Server. Teper's title was previously general manager, Business Portals Group. A 15-year veteran of Microsoft, Teper has overseen SharePoint Server (formerly SharePoint Portal Server) since the product's inception.

J Allard Takes Over Zune Business

The Entertainment and Devices division under President Robbie Bach has seen a shuffle in the management of the Zune product line and a promotion for a longtime games executive.

J Allard has taken over business management of the Zune digital music player and online music store from Bryan Lee. Allard, architect of the Xbox, is now the corporate vice president of the Music Business & Platform Services Group. He had already led product development for Zune, which has struggled to gain share against Apple's dominant iPod. Allard faces two important tasks: introducing follow-on Zune devices (such as a flash-based player) and convincing content owners to release more content for Zune, whose novel music-sharing features have been hampered by restrictive copy protection demanded by the owners.

Bryan Lee has left Microsoft. A former Sony Pictures Entertainment executive, Lee served as CFO of the Home and Entertainment division (now the Entertainment and Devices division) from 2000 to 2006, after which he took on business responsibility for Zune, the Microsoft TV platform, and other efforts in music, video, and television. Division head Robbie Bach has temporarily taken on his responsibilities, other than Zune.

Shane Kim has been promoted to corporate vice president, Microsoft Game Studios. Previously a general manager, he remains in charge of first-party games for Xbox, Xbox Live, and Windows.

New Consulting Leader, Online Services Changes

Elsewhere in the Microsoft organization, Microsoft has picked a new leader for its consulting and support arm. The online services division, which manages the Windows Live effort, is losing its head of server-side development and gaining a longtime engineering leader to build out its Google-targeted advertising platform.

Maria Martinez has been named corporate vice president, Worldwide Services, where she will lead all Microsoft consulting and product support. She replaces Rick Devenuti, who left Microsoft in 2006, and will report to Kevin Turner. Martinez previously led Microsoft's Communications Sector organization, which sells solutions for telecommunications and network service providers, such as the Customer Care Framework solution for call centers. (No replacement has been named for her Communications Sector job.) She came to Microsoft in 2003 from the telecommunications industry, with stints at Bell Laboratories and as a vice president and general manager of digital cellular and Internet units at Motorola.

Chris Payne is leaving his post of corporate vice president, Windows Live Search. No replacement has been named for Payne, who oversaw the development of Microsoft's online search platform (also called Live Search) as well as its online shopping efforts. The search unit has struggled since Microsoft launched its own search engine in Jan. 2005, losing share to both Google and Yahoo according to search engine ratings firms such as Nielsen NetRatings. Payne worked for the Access team in the 1990s, left to work for Amazon.com, and then rejoined Microsoft in 2001 to run MSN Search and several other properties (e.g., MSN Autos and Slate) before forming his current unit in 2003. Payne is reportedly planning to start his own company.

Blake Irving is retiring from his post as corporate vice president, Windows Live Platform Group. The group performs all server-side software development and deployment for Windows Live and MSN services, as well as overseeing some consumer-facing services, such as Hotmail and Messenger. No replacement has yet been named for Irving, who has been a vice president in the MSN business unit since 2000. Irving joined Microsoft in 1992 and worked on Internet products such as NetMeeting and Internet Explorer before moving into the online services organization.

Rick Thompson has been named corporate vice president of Windows Live Advertising and Monetization Platforms, a new position in which he reported to Irving until recently. Thompson is responsible for engineering of the Windows Live advertising platform, including billing and subscriptions. Thompson has long experience in the company's consumer hardware businesses: he led the original introduction of the Microsoft Mouse and many subsequent devices, and more recently supervised the now-disbanded group responsible for Media Center and Tablet PCs. However, he also has online services experience, having spent two years as the chief financial officer and vice president of product development for Go2Net (subsequently merged with InfoSpace) before rejoining Microsoft in 2002.

Joanne Bradford has been named corporate vice president and chief media officer of MSN, gaining responsibility for the development of MSN-branded sites. She was formerly corporate vice president of global sales and marketing for MSN, and she retains responsibility for marketing. MSN advertising sales, on the other hand, now fall to Chris Dobson, vice president, Global Sales, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions; advertising placements in games and other media fall to Cory Van Arsdale, who is now CEO, Massive. Both report directly to Online Services Division head Steve Berkowitz.

Resources

The Mar. 2007 Directions on Microsoft OrgChart outlines the company's top 750+ managers; it is available free of charge to all subscribers of the Directions Complete service.

Recent reorganizations of the Windows technical team are outlined in "Windows, Vertical Teams Reorganize" on page 35 of the Dec. 2006 Update and "Sinofsky to Lead Windows Client, Online Services" on page 33 of the May 2006 Update.