Microsoft Corp. board Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner is reportedly one of the internal candidates on the shortlist that has been prepared for finding current CEO Steve Ballmer's successor.
The other two potential candidates are business development and evangelism chief Satya Nadella and Tony Bates. These people oversee the company's cloud and enterprise business.
The company's board also contacted other senior leaders like Qi Lu, who is in charge for Bing and Office. Operating systems chief Terry Myerson was also contacted before the narrowed list was compiled.
However there isn't any clear and defined candidate who will succeed Ballmer. Reportedly, Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford Motor Co, and former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop are also interviewing with the board's search committee.
There were also some CEO candidates that refused to take up the post, such as Paul Matiz, head of EMC Corp.'s Pivotal venture.
"Microsoft needs a very strong, transformative leader and while I usually prefer insiders, at this moment they very likely need to go outside," said Bill George who is a director at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. and also a Harvard Business School professor. "An insider may not be able to make the difficult big changes Microsoft needs and get other insiders to follow him."
Meanwhile, speculations that Mulally is in the running have been ruled out by Ford's spokesman.
"There is no change from what we announced last November," Jay Cooney, a spokesman for Ford, said in an email, referring to the company's plan for Mulally to remain CEO through at least 2014. "Alan remains fully focused on continuing to make progress on our One Ford plan. We do not engage in speculation."
