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Microsoft names three new division presidents following recent departures

Donald Melanson
Guest Contributor
Updated ·4 min read

As you may have noticed, Microsoft has seen a few pretty significant executive shakeups as of late, with Robbie Bach and J Allard announcing their departures back in May, and Steven Elop leaving just last month to take the top job at Nokia. Now Microsoft has officially filled in some of those gaps, naming Kurt DelBene as president of its Microsoft Office Division, and Andy Lees and Don Mattrick as presidents of its Mobile Communications Business and Interactive Entertainment Business, respectively -- Windows Phone and Xbox, in other words. All three divisions are actually new (at least in name), but DelBene is effectively succeeding Elop, who led Microsoft's Business Division, while Mattrick and Lees are more or less splitting up Robbie Bach's former duties as head of the now dissolved Entertainment and Devices division. Head on past the break for the complete press release.

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Microsoft Announces New Leadership Promotions

Presidents appointed for Microsoft Office Division, Mobile Communications Business and Interactive Entertainment Business.

REDMOND, Wash. - Oct. 1, 2010 - Microsoft Corp. today promoted Kurt DelBene to president of the Microsoft Office Division, Andy Lees to president of the Mobile Communications Business, and Don Mattrick to president of the Interactive Entertainment Business.

"Today's promotions underscore the strength of Microsoft's collective leadership team and set us up well to execute against a powerful lineup of products this fall," said Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer. "Not only is the team ready to capitalize on major momentum with our existing products like Office, SharePoint and Halo: Reach, but they are simultaneously bringing entirely new experiences to market with Windows Phone 7 and Kinect for Xbox 360."

DelBene, 50, has been with the company for 18 years and most recently led the engineering and development teams for the Microsoft Business Division, including the development of the recently launched Office 2010 products and services. Office 2010 has already become the fastest selling consumer version of Office, Microsoft Online Services have already surpassed 40 million paid seats, and more than 20 million customers have adopted the recently released Office Web Applications in the first 100 days. As president, DelBene assumes responsibility for the Microsoft Office Division, including both the engineering and marketing functions for clients, servers and services for information workers, including Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Project, Visio and Microsoft's speech technology investment.

As President of the Mobile Communications Business, Lees, 45, will continue to oversee the overall marketing and product development for Microsoft's mobility efforts. Lees, a 20-year Microsoft veteran, has led the Mobile Communications Business since February 2008 and was at the center of the company's efforts to rebuild the mobile business, including the development of the upcoming Windows Phone 7 to be released this holiday season. Windows Phone 7 is designed to make every-day tasks faster by doing more in fewer steps and providing timely information in a "glance and go" format.

Mattrick, 46, joined Microsoft in 2007 to lead the Interactive Entertainment Business, and has helped drive exceptional growth in the company's global Xbox 360 business, increasing the Xbox 360 install base to 42 million owners worldwide and more than 25 million Xbox Live users. This holiday season is shaping up to be the strongest ever for the Interactive Entertainment Business, with the new Xbox 360 console, already the number 1 selling system in North America and Europe, the recent blockbuster release of Halo: Reach, and the scheduled Nov. 4, release of Microsoft's new Kinect for Xbox 360, the world's first controller-free gaming and entertainment system.

As President of the Interactive Entertainment Business, Mattrick will continue to oversee a wide array of businesses and services focused on consumer entertainment, including Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, Kinect, Zune Music and Video, and Mediaroom, as well as PC and mobile interactive entertainment, which were added to his portfolio in May when Robbie Bach, long-time president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division, announced his intention to retire later this year.

In related organizational moves, Kirill Tatarinov will continue overseeing Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) and will report to Steve Ballmer. MBS develops and markets the line of Microsoft Dynamics products that manage financial, customer relationship and supply chain management functions (ERP and CRM) for organizations of all sizes.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news.Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft's Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.