New Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is making his first executive appointments including naming former Nokia chief Stephen Elop as executive VP of Microsoft's Devices group.
Acting leader for Microsoft's cloud and enterprise unit, Scott Guthrie, is now executive vice president and Phil Spencer is taking on a new role leading the vendor's Xbox and Xbox Live development teams with the Microsoft Studios team.
"Recently, I've discussed with the Microsoft leadership team the need to zero in on what truly makes Microsoft unique," says Nadella is a press announcement released on Monday.
"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."
The leadership shuffle comes just two months after the 22-year Microsoft veteran was tapped as the company's third chief executive. He served as executive vice president of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise group before replacing Steve Ballmer who retired but remains on the Microsoft board of directors.
In the leadership announcement email to employees Nadella states the new appointments reflect the company's strategy "to evolve and tune our organization for maximum focus and impact."
"Scott has been a very public and passionate evangelist for many of our most important developer and infrastructure businesses," notes Nadella, adding Guthrie has made "critical contributions" to .NET and other pivotal technologies.
"As a leader, Scott has shown incredible energy and insight into how we create technology that others can build on, and which can be built on what others have created," he writes.
Regarding Spencer Nadella makes note the position reveals Microsoft's strategy to combine software, gaming and content across the Xbox team under one single leader.
"Phil will continue his close partnership with Yusuf Mehdi, who leads business strategy and marketing for Xbox, George Peckham, who heads up third-party partnerships and Mike Angiulo, who will continue leading Xbox hardware," says Nadella, adding "Phil is the right person to lead Xbox forward."
Referring to Elop's role, Nadella notes he has worked with Elop as a key partner while Elop served as Nokia CEO. Microsoft is acquiring Nokia and expects to close the deal by the end of this month.
"I look forward to working with Stephen as a key member of the senior leadership team and welcoming the Nokia Devices and Services employees to the Microsoft family. 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," says Nadella in the release.
"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 organization as well as the current leaders of the Devices and Studios team."
