Microsoft is promoting longtime sales executive Judson Althoff to CEO of its commercial business, a major reorganization that frees up CEO Satya Nadella to focus exclusively on technical work as the company races to dominate artificial intelligence.
Althoff will oversee a newly unified organisation combining sales, marketing and operations for all Microsoft commercial products, including its AI Copilot suite. The move represents one of Microsoft's most significant leadership changes in years, with Chief Marketing Officer Takeshi Numoto and his team now reporting directly to Althoff.
The restructuring puts Althoff in charge of what Nadella called Microsoft's "most important growth engine" while Chief Operations Officer Carolina Dybeck Happe's team also joins the new organisation.
Nadella doubles down on AI innovation and datacenter buildout
The reorganisation allows Nadella and Microsoft's engineering leaders to concentrate on what he described as "highest ambition technical work" spanning datacenter construction, systems architecture, AI research and product innovation.
"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," Nadella wrote in an email to employees Wednesday.
Althoff joined Microsoft in 2013 and has led the company's global sales organization for nine years. He was the architect behind Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions, which has become the tech giant's primary revenue driver. He recently returned from an eight-week sabbatical to assume his expanded role.
Microsoft unifies teams to compete against OpenAI and Google
The changes come as Microsoft faces intensifying competition in AI from rivals including Google and OpenAI, its key partner. Last month, Microsoft consolidated its separate AI tool marketplaces into a single "Microsoft Marketplace" offering, combining developer tools from Azure cloud services with AI agents designed to automate business tasks.
Althoff will lead a new commercial leadership team bringing together executives from engineering, sales, marketing, operations and finance to drive product strategy with shared accountability for execution.
Althoff will oversee a newly unified organisation combining sales, marketing and operations for all Microsoft commercial products, including its AI Copilot suite. The move represents one of Microsoft's most significant leadership changes in years, with Chief Marketing Officer Takeshi Numoto and his team now reporting directly to Althoff.
The restructuring puts Althoff in charge of what Nadella called Microsoft's "most important growth engine" while Chief Operations Officer Carolina Dybeck Happe's team also joins the new organisation.
Nadella doubles down on AI innovation and datacenter buildout
The reorganisation allows Nadella and Microsoft's engineering leaders to concentrate on what he described as "highest ambition technical work" spanning datacenter construction, systems architecture, AI research and product innovation.
"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," Nadella wrote in an email to employees Wednesday.
Althoff joined Microsoft in 2013 and has led the company's global sales organization for nine years. He was the architect behind Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions, which has become the tech giant's primary revenue driver. He recently returned from an eight-week sabbatical to assume his expanded role.
Microsoft unifies teams to compete against OpenAI and Google
The changes come as Microsoft faces intensifying competition in AI from rivals including Google and OpenAI, its key partner. Last month, Microsoft consolidated its separate AI tool marketplaces into a single "Microsoft Marketplace" offering, combining developer tools from Azure cloud services with AI agents designed to automate business tasks.
Althoff will lead a new commercial leadership team bringing together executives from engineering, sales, marketing, operations and finance to drive product strategy with shared accountability for execution.
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