After not having a Windows representative on the executive team (SLT) in recent years, Microsoft has moved product manager Panos Panay into the “inner circle” of advisers to CEO Satya Nadella, according to a August 25 article by Bloomberg. Panay became both Windows Customer Manager and Surface Business Manager in February 2020.
For the past two years Microsoft officials have been saying “Windows is back” and doing what they can to try to position Windows as a growth company of strategic importance to the company.
Rajesh Jha, who is the executive vice president of experiences and devices and the boss of Panay, has been with SLT for several years. But since former Windows chief Terry Myerson left the company in 2018, the Windows business hasn’t had a figurehead with much internal power and external visibility.
Microsoft Senior Executives Website, which until recently listed all members of the management team, has been redone. Now only a handful of executives are listed there, referred to as “Executive Officers”. This site no longer lists other members of the Inner Circle/Senior Leadership Team, including Executive Vice President of Cloud and AI Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President of Azure Jason Zander, Executive Vice President Jha , chief technology officer Kevin Scott, chief gaming officer Phil Spencer and others.
Microsoft’s new executives site lists Judson Althoff EVP and Chief Commercial Officer; Chris Capossela, Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President of Marketing and Consumer Affairs; Kathleen Hogan, executive vice president and chief human resources officer; Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer; Brad Smith, President; and Christopher Young, executive vice president of business development, strategy and enterprise, but no other members of SLT.
A Microsoft spokesperson, when I asked, said, “At the start of this fiscal year (starting July 1), we streamlined our Executive Bios page to only include executives that we have for SEC reporting purposes who are executives who lead a corporate function aligned with what the law requires. The list includes the CEO and heads of Sales, HR, Finance, Legal, Marketing, and BD (business development) functions.
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