Microsoft unveils additional CEO to work alongside Nadella

Microsoft has a new CEO – but don't worry, Satya Nadella isn't out of a job.

The tech giant has announced Judson Althoff will become CEO of Microsoft's commercial business, while Nadella is staying on as the wider CEO, but better able to focus on the technical aspects of the company amid the AI race.

Althoff will head a new organization inside Microsoft that will take in sales, marketing, finance, and operations.

Nadella said in a blog post that the move was necessary to continue to manage and grow the existing commercial business while also building the "new frontier" of AI – and "executing flawlessly across both."

"To accelerate this, we will increasingly need to bring together sales, marketing, operations, and engineering to drive growth and strengthen our position as the partner of choice for AI transformation," Nadella said, later adding: "With this context, I have asked Judson Althoff to take on an expanded role as CEO of our commercial business."

Passing off that work to Althoff will allow Nadella to focus on tech – notably that around AI.

"This will also allow our engineering leaders and me to be laser focused on our highest ambition technical work – across our datacenter buildout, systems architecture, AI science, and product innovation – to lead with intensity and pace in this generational platform shift," Nadella added.

Promotion for Althoff

Althoff joined Microsoft in 2013 as the president of Microsoft North America, according to Reuters, and in 2021 led the newly organised division that brought together global sales, marketing, and commercial.

"Over the past nine years, Judson has led our global sales organization and was the architect behind designing and building Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions (MCAPS) into what it is today: the 'number one seed' in the industry and our company's most important growth engine," Nadella noted.

This latest move now adds operations into the mix, with marketing now reporting to Judson as well as operations. "By bringing operations into the commercial business, we can tighten the feedback loop between what customers need and how we deliver and support them," Nadella added.

Beyond that, Judson will lead a new commercial leadership team that brings together leaders from engineering, marketing, operations, and finance to drive our strategy, governance, market readiness, and sales.

Major change at Microsoft

The change is a significant reorganisation for a company that has only had three CEOs in its entire history: Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and now Nadella, who took over in 2014.

"This isn't just evolution, it's reinvention, for each of us professionally and for Microsoft," Nadella said.

But it isn't the first time a company has split the top job. Oracle last month named two CEOs to take over from Safra Catz, who herself shared the role with Mark Hurd until his death in 2019. Spotify this week announced dual CEOs to take over the top job from founder Daniel Ek, while Netflix has used a similar model since 2020.

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