Nadella reveals leadership changes at Microsoft – Elop to join as head of mobile

Microsoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella has continued to make sweeping changes at the software giant, announcing Scott Guthrie to lead the Cloud and Enterprise organisation, Phil Spencer to lead Xbox, and former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop to be head of Microsoft’s Mobile Devices Group.

Last year, Microsoft bought Nokia, once the world’s largest phone vendor, for US$7.1bn.

Prior to Nadella’s announcement as CEO, Elop was considered in the running for one of the most powerful leadership roles in the technology industry worldwide.

“In advance of Build, I want to highlight three announcements about how we’re continuing to evolve and tune our organisation for maximum focus and impact,” Nadella said.

Guthrie has been promoted from acting to executive vice-president of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise organisation. According to Nadella, Guthrie made critical contributions to .NET and other pivotal Microsoft technologies.

Spencer will lead the Xbox, Xbox Live, Xbox Music and Xbox Video teams, as well as Microsoft Studios. He will report to Terry Myerson, as well as continue to work alongside Yusef Mehdi and George Peckham.

Nokia acquisition to close by end of April

Elop – once the deal to acquire Nokia has been closed – will join Microsoft as executive vice-president in charge of Microsoft’s Devices Group and will report directly to Nadella.

Nadella said he expects the acquisition of Nokia to close by the end of April.

“The mobile capabilities, hardware design expertise, and world-class manufacturing and supply-chain operations they bring will help us drive innovations in devices to delight our customers. Stephen will partner closely with Phil and Terry on Xbox and will bring together many of the top leaders from his existing Nokia Devices and Services organisation as well as the current leaders of the Devices and Studios team,” Nadella said.

“Recently, I’ve discussed with the Microsoft leadership team the need to zero in on what truly makes Microsoft unique. As I said on my first day, we need to do everything possible to thrive in a mobile-first, cloud-first world. The announcements last week, our news this week, the Nokia acquisition closing soon, and the leaders and teams we are putting in place are all great first steps in making this happen.”