Who's in, out at Microsoft

There have been a fair number of changes at Microsoft HQ of late, so we wanted to provide a program for those keeping score at home. Here are some of the top executives who have joined the company or are leaving the executive ranks.

This list is neither chronological nor exhaustive. It leaves out recent departures such as dealmaker Bruce Jaffe and strategy executive Charles Fitzgerald.

Instead, I've focused on a few key folks who have left or are leaving shortly who have the biggest impact in Redmond, as well as some key outsiders Microsoft has recruited in recent years.

Who's out:

Bill Gates

Bill Gates
OK. Well, the Microsoft founder isn't leaving the software maker completely. But he did cede his chief software architect title and plans to shift to part-time work in July.

His is the impact most likely to be felt across the company. Even as the company has grown, there was still the notion of a "Bill review" where a project's technical merits were discussed, as well as his twice-yearly "Think Week" where employees submitted papers on new ideas for the company.

Jeff Raikes

Jeff Raikes
Definitely a key part of Microsoft's old guard, Raikes is a onetime Microsoft sales chief, who, in recent years, has been responsible for building the Office franchise and expanding into other areas, such as business intelligence and unified communications.

Raikes, who joined Microsoft from Apple in 1981, is giving up the reins of the business software division at the end of the month, but will remain at the company until September.

Jim Allchin

Jim Allchin
Allchin, who headed the Windows unit, left Microsoft in January 2007, the day after Vista shipped. Allchin had a well-earned reputation as a perfectionist and tireless champion for quality and user experience.

Critics note that, under his watch, Windows projects were often late and had to have planned features taken out to meet already delayed deadlines. Steven Sinofsky, now in charge of Windows engineering, was known at the Office unit for getting releases out on time and staying "on message" in public.

Who's in:

Stephen Elop

Stephen Elop
Elop, who was hired on Thursday to replace Raikes, will bring a number of relevant experiences when he joins Microsoft later this month. His telecommunications experience at Juniper Networks could help on the unified communications side, while his experience at Adobe Systems could help Microsoft with its Silverlight push.

However, one financial analyst characterized him as a "job-hopper." In his most recent job, Elop was at Juniper for just one year.

Ray Ozzie

Ray Ozzie
Ozzie's been there since 2005, but his influence has continued to grow. He's now chief software architect, Gates' old role, and in charge of the company's Live services push.

Ozzie's hiring has been heralded by Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer, but we've heard precious little from him in recent months. He spoke at just two major public events last year--the company's Mix trade show as well as Microsoft's financial analysts' meeting.

Steve Berkowitz

Steve Berkowitz
The former Ask CEO, who joined Microsoft in April 2006, has been pushing the software giant to think less geeky with its Windows Live services.

However, the company's search share has continued to fall, and Berkowitz saw his fiefdom scaled back as part of a March 2007 reorganization. An insider said he may not be the right fit even for his present role.

Brian McAndrews

Brian McAndrews
Seen as a rising star within Microsoft, McAndrews was CEO of Aquantive, which Microsoft snapped up last year for $6 billion.

He now heads up Microsoft's advertiser and publisher efforts, within Kevin Johnson's Platform and Services unit. His domain includes the former Aquantive ad engines, Microsoft's homegrown AdCenter, as well as mobile acquisition ScreenTonic and in-game ad engine Massive.

Kevin Turner

Kevin Turner
Turner has also been around for a while now, having been hired as chief operating officer since August 2005, when he was hired away from Wal-Mart Stores.

[Koo Breez]

Where's all the Msft haters?

Come on, this article has been online for at least 5 minutes. Where's all you dork Msft hater comments? LOL

[TV James]

Give it a rest.

They've finally decided to wait until they had something specific to say, that this site is tired of random drive-bys and ready for intelligent discourse. Stop trying to incite.

[Commander_Spock]

Geez....

What is the matter with you man did you not get the earlier vibrations from the Explorer "Aftershock" originating in Europe - You have got to watch out for the Tsuname Waves that/which can reach the US shores dude. Please be cautious. :-X !

[t8]

Here I am

Google will win more of the Web than Microsoft.
Microsoft is a has been.

Are you happy now?

[lyntone]

Micro Soft

It's hard to say anything bad about a great company, even if it started out by stealing from Steve Jobs, like in the movie, "pirates of silicon valley"!

[t8]

Don't forget all the other stuff they stole

In fact all their successful products were once somebody else's product or idea.

But Microsoft took their markets away by the power of bundling.

Thankfully the industry is moving toward the Web as the platform for services. In that world, Microsoft cannot abuse their market dominance in desktop software because the Web is not the desktop.

[lyntone]

watch this

click or paste this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im589uTchKs

[supervillains]

Bill Gates is a Superhero

At least for us people living on a developing and third world country, Bill Gates is a hero, who helps us bring food on our tables.

Many people don't appreciate what he does, but for us literally fighting for hunger and survival, he's investment helps many to get jobs and improve lives.

Being an open source guy, it's undenyably that Bill had been a part of me, that inspired me when I was young to jumpstart my interest in computing... he will always be my hero.

[delf76]

agreed

Whether you like Microsoft, Apple, Unix, Linux... or whatever, you have to admit Gates influenced the world.

However, I wonder if he's gone for a while, if he'll begin to miss Microsoft and come back? Think about that... if you founded a company at an early ripe age, and grew it into the Huge Microsoft Campus today, wouldn't it be a little hard to walk away from that?

[y82whs]

New execs all "new" to MSFT

As an ex-MSFT person, the thing that leaps out to me is that all the promoted executives are essentially new to the company. In addition to Raikes and Gates, they also lost the "core" of their systems team several years ago: Maritz and Silverberg. Other execs who had been there longer clearly got passed over. Ozzie is fundamentally a "non-MSFT person", Bach is peripheral (XBox isn't Windows/Office), and given Mundie's track record (e.g. MSFT's track record) in areas like set top boxes, etc., one wonders....

Ballmer is definitely there, but can be divisive, and also, Bill was fundamentally the technology guy (and now Ozzie/Mundie).

There is a philosophy and credibility that comes with years of service. Jeff Raikes will be hard to replace: He has been there "forever", had Bill's trust (yes, I know he's leaving, etc.).

Without Bill to "meld" a team with his smarts, it will be interesting to see if these new guys can form a team at such a now-huge organization.

[t8]

Comparing Microsoft's new line up

Comparing Microsoft's new line up with Google's and it seems to me that Google will win the future.

[Llib Setag]

Who's That Guy????

You mean the fat, bald, giant, red faced, big mouthed buffoon throwing chairs & shouting his head off at people defecting to Google?

That's Steve " BaldyBot" Ballmer, the CEO.

[delf76]

Some Fresh blood

I think It will do Microsoft some good to get some new blood in the doors.

Every company goes through changes like this from time to time, and if done correctly, it can really be a good thing for the company.

It will be interesting to see how things play out this year going into 2009....

I often wonder when Ballmer is going to retire...?

[The_Vulcan]

Now I Know Why !

Now I know why Microsoft hasn't come up with anything new for years.

Its run by a bunch of old farts who wouldn't see a trend coming if it bit them on the ass.

They need to do some house cleaning and get some fresh blood in there.

And they should recall Vista while they are at it.

[Sumatra-Bosch]

Does it Matter?

If all these guys in, out, whatever, left the company and jumped off a bridge, it would not matter to the company. The OS franchise would continue to gush money no matter what and, in fact, in their absence and in the absence of the cost centers they work for, MSFT would make more money. If Vista was any indication, MSFT would do best to locate some competent programming help, scrap Vista, fire most all of their 60,000 employees, starting with Ballmer, and maintain XP and the pre-2007 versions of Office. You could probably keep the OS and Office franchises going indefinitely with 2000 people. It would be insanely profitable, beyond anyone's greediest imaginings and it would stop spewing incompetently developed consumer electronics crap like Zune, worthless Web apps like Live and uninspired enterprise applications. Hey, Gates and his father figured out licensing schemes and bootloader exclusivity deals that locked out the competition in OSes. OK, they won. No one expects MSFT to do anything but milk the franchise and aim their lawyers at anything that threatens it.

Roberto

[zunezrok]

The apple fanboys have landed!

Why can't all of you fanboys mind your own buisness! Microsoft has changed the way we all live our lives! Besides... all that other compenies do is copy microsoft! Apple is just a one hit wonder and microsoft will live on FOREVER! Go microsoft! Apple can suck it!!!