News

Microsoft Announces Realignment, Promotions

• By Scott Bekker
• 12/03/1999

Microsoft has announced corporate realignment in several of their product groups. The company has also announced the promotions of Jim Allchin and Bob Muglia to group vice presidents of the Platforms Group and the Business Productivity Group. In addition to the promotions, Microsoft has renamed and realigned the Consumer and Commerce Group as the Consumer Group, and has announced that the Home and Retail Division and the Consumer Strategy and Partnerships division will both join the Consumer Group.

Allchin will assume overall responsibility for the Microsoft Windows family of products, streaming media, and all associated marketing. He joined Microsoft in 1990 and has subsequently led the development and marketing efforts for Microsoft's high-end systems software, including Windows 2000. Muglia will assume responsibility for managing the development of Microsoft Office, the Microsoft BackOffice family of products, and software for productivity appliances. Muglia joined Microsoft in 1988 and has served in several positions, including senior vice president for the former Applications and Tools Group.

The Consumer Group will consist of the former Consumer and Commerce Group, as well as the Home and Retail division and the Consumer Strategy and Partnerships division. The Consumer Services Division (CSD) will work within the Consumer Group on Microsoft's initiative to provide access to the Web any time, anywhere and on any device. The CSD will be headed by David Cole, who has been promoted to senior vice president. The Consumer Group will consist of seven divisions, reporting to Group Vice President Rick Belluzzo.

Previously separate Consumer Windows Division and Business and Enterprise Division have been combined to form the Windows Division within the Platform Group. The Windows Division will be headed by Brian Valentine, who has been promoted to senior vice president. Anthony Bay has been promoted to vice president of the Streaming Media Division. He will be responsible for Windows Media technologies, Microsoft's digital media platform business.

In the Business Productivity Group, the creation of a Small Business Division was announced. This division will allow Microsoft to develop e-commerce and knowledge worker services specifically designed to meet the needs of small and growing companies. Steven Sinofsky was promoted to senior vice president, Server Applications, and Paul Gross was promoted to vice president, New Application Technologies. In the Developer Group, the promotions of David Vaskevitch to senior vice president for the Developer Group and Paul Flessner to vice president for SQL Server were announced.