Microsoft has elevated Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff to a broader role as CEO of its commercial business, allowing CEO Satya Nadella to shift greater focus towards the company’s core technology and AI ambitions.
Althoff will lead what Microsoft CEO Nadella called a new organisation, which will combine sales, marketing and operations.
Nadella said the reorganization would help him and other engineering leaders to be “laser focused on our highest ambition technical work – across our datacenter buildout, systems architecture, AI science, and product innovation,” in a blog post on Wednesday.
‘Tectonic AI Platform Shift’
Althoff will also be the chief of a new commercial leadership team that includes leaders from engineering, sales, marketing, operations and finance.
“We are in the midst of a tectonic AI platform shift, one that requires us to both manage and grow our at-scale commercial business today, while building the new frontier and executing flawlessly across both,” Nadella said.
In 2021, Microsoft brought together its global sales and marketing organization and worldwide commercial business into a single unified organization, helmed by Althoff, who joined the company in 2013 as president of Microsoft North America.
Microsoft last month said it is combining the separate marketplaces for its AI tools aimed at businesses into one offering called “Microsoft Marketplace”.
It previously offered tools for software developers, who use its Azure cloud computing service, on one marketplace, and applications and so-called “agents” — AI tools designed to carry out tasks on behalf of human users within applications — on another.
Trump’s Suggestion For Microsoft
In late September, US President Donald Trump said Microsoft should dismiss Lisa Monaco, a former official in two Democratic administrations who now serves as the company’s global affairs president.
The move appears to be the latest effort by Trump to exact retribution on those he sees on political enemies and comes one day after the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey.
Monaco had helped coordinate the Justice Department’s response to the January 6, 2021, attacks by Trump supporters on the US Capitol.
She served as a security aide in the administration of President Barack Obama and was the deputy attorney general in President Joe Biden’s administration. Monaco started working for Microsoft in July to lead the firm’s engagements with governments globally, according to her LinkedIn profile.
(With inputs from Reuters)
