Microsoft Corp. on Monday reorganized its platforms group, combining the Developer and Platform Evangelism Business, the Windows Server System Business, and the Enterprise Storage and Management Business under the existing Servers and Tools Profit & Loss center (P&L), which will be headed by senior vice president Eric Rudder.
However, Paul Flessner, who was senior vice president of the server platform division and who led the Server and Tools P&L, will “return to his roots of engineering management and will lead the Exchange, SQL and eBusiness Divisions, while reporting to Rudder,” a Microsoft spokesman told eWEEK on Monday.
This is not a downward or sideways move for Flessner, the spokesman said, as Flessner “was looking to do less business work and more engineering.”
The shuffle is not unusual as Microsoft often tweaks its organizational structure and moves staff around, particularly around the end of the fiscal year. In fact, Microsoft also announced on Monday that it has filled its vacant chief-privacy-strategist position.
Peter Cullen, corporate privacy officer for Royal Bank of Canada, will join Microsoft on July 14 in that role. Cullen will report to Scott Charney, Microsofts chief security strategist, whose title is now chief trustworthy computing strategist. Charney had been filling in as acting chief privacy strategist.
Microsoft is organized into seven P&Ls: client, server/tools, information worker, business solutions, home and entertainment, MSN, subscription services, and mobile and embedded devices.
Rudder was most recently senior vice president for the Developer & Platform Evangelism Business. With this change, there will continue to be three P&Ls in the Platforms Group: Servers & Tools (under Rudder), Mobile and Embedded Devices (run by Pieter Knook), and Windows Client (headed by Will Poole).
A Microsoft spokesman told eWEEK on Monday that aligning the three organizations under a single management structure would create synergy in product development, enabling more centralized focus in business and marketing functions.
He also said that the changes did not affect the Windows Server organization under senior vice president Brian Valentine, who will continue to be responsible for all the core technology pieces of Windows Server.