25 Big Microsoft Executive Departures So Far In 2025

A president of worldwide small and medium business and corporate markets, a corporate vice president of devices, and a CTO involved in industry copilots are among the executives on the list.

A retired president for worldwide small and medium business and corporate markets. A devices corporate vice president who left for Amazon. And a CTO involved in industry copilots who is now at Salesforce.

These are among the biggest Microsoft executives to have departed the Redmond, Wash.-based technology giant so far in 2025.

CRN culled through news reports and posts on Microsoft-owned LinkedIn to compile this list, giving extra weight to entries based on the role the person had at Microsoft and the role they took on after leaving the vendor, plus whether they left for a major competitor.

Microsoft declined to comment for this article.

[RELATED: 8 Big AWS Executive Departures; VPs And Top Engineers Leave]

Microsoft Departures

CRN has also put together a list of the biggest Microsoft executive hires so far in 2025.

While the largest technology companies are always jockeying for top talent, the human capital battle has reached a new level in the era of artificial intelligence. Facebook parent Meta offered $200 million over several years to hire Ruoming Pang, who ran Apple’s AI models team, according to a Bloomberg article from July.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during an appearance on his brother’s podcast this summer that Meta has tried to hire away a variety of his employees with signing bonuses as high as $100 million.

Read on for some of the biggest executive departures from Microsoft so far this year.

John Aisien

VP, Unified Security Intelligence

Aisien left Microsoft in March after about a year with the tech giant to join ServiceNow, taking on the role of senior vice president and running central outbound product management.

His resume includes about eight years as CEO of the Blue Cedar mobile application security platform provider. He co-founded the company in 2016, according to his LinkedIn account.

His resume includes about two years with IoT security company Mocana. He left in 2016 as president and COO.

Peter Kyriacou

Corporate VP, Microsoft Devices

After about 16 years with Microsoft, Kyriacou departed the vendor in January and took on the role of vice president of product for Amazon’s Echo smart speakers.

Some of the highlights from his four years as a Microsoft corporate vice president for about four years include introducing Copilot+ AI PC versions of Microsoft’s Surface Pro and Surface Laptop brands in 2024 and introducing Windows 11-ready versions of a variety of Surface devices in 2021.

His time with Microsoft included about six years as a partner program manager and about five years as a senior director, according to his LinkedIn account.

Indrojit Deb

CTO, Power Platform Intelligent Applications, Business And Industry Copilots

Deb left Microsoft in May and became Salesforce’s senior vice president and architect of its unified Agentforce platform.

He spent about 27 years with Microsoft, according to his LinkedIn account. In his latest role with the tech giant, he held a technical and architectural leadership position evolving the roles of apps and humans in agent-centric systems.

His other roles with Microsoft included architecture deputy CTO for the business and industry copilot business and architecture technology director for business applications and platform.

Lori Garcia

GM, Solutions Technology, Manufacturing, High-Tech

Garcia departed Microsoft in April and took on the job of senior vice president of strategy, experience and commercial excellence at telecommunications vendor Lumen Technologies.

She worked at Microsoft for about nine years, according to her LinkedIn account. In her last role with the vendor, she helped to lead AI go-to-market strategy in U.S. manufacturing and high-tech. She focused on accelerating enterprise AI adoption, scaling industry-specific products and services and positioned Microsoft as a leading AI partner for digital transformation.

Garcia had five direct reports, 300-plus direct employees, 400-plus U.S.-based enterprise customers and was responsible for the sales of the full Microsoft portfolio, including Azure, modern work, security and business applications.

Past titles with Microsoft include global digital app and innovation sales leader, global business and sales strategy for Azure infrastructure, and apps and data and analytics sales leader for the energy and travel sectors.

Libby Saylor Wright

COO, U.S. Retail, Consumer Goods

After about five years with Microsoft, Wright left the vendor in April and became president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta, providing leadership to 25 clubs across nine counties serving more than 8,000 young people.

At Microsoft, she led the digital and AI transformation for her sector’s customers and “managed strategy, business operations, and communications to enhance customer experience and increase revenue,” according to her LinkedIn account. She also “collaborated with cross-functional teams to implement innovative solutions and drive business success.”

Her resume includes about two years as COO of Women's Foodservice Forum, leaving the advocacy group in 2020. She also worked at The Coca-Cola Co. for about 13 years, leaving in 2018 as vice president of strategy.

Kevin Peesker

President, Worldwide Small, Medium, Business, Corporate Markets

Peesker retired from his position in April after seven-plus years with Microsoft and 35 years in the technology industry.

He served as president of worldwide SMC for about three years, according to his account on LinkedIn. He was “responsible for delivering US$72 Billion of revenue leading Microsoft's global team in the delivery of Cloud, Data & AI, Business Applications, Modern Workplace and security solutions for Small, Medium and Corporate business and government customers across North America, Latin America, Europe Middle East Africa and Asia.”

He previously held the title of president of Microsoft Canada for about five years. Peesker’s resume includes more than 14 years with Dell Technologies, leaving in 2017 as president of Dell's commercial business in Canada, according to his LinkedIn account.

Tyler Bryson

Corporate VP, Health, Public Sector Industries, U.S.

Bryson left Microsoft in March after about 23 years with the vendor and took on the role of Americas CRO at payments processing company Stripe.

He held the health and public sector corporate vice president title for about three years, according to his LinkedIn account.

But before taking on that role, Bryson held high-level positions within Microsoft’s partner operations, including corporate vice president of U.S. Global Partner Solutions and vice president of the small, medium and corporate segment of Microsoft U.S.

Ana Maria Henao

CMO, GM, Americas Consumer Channel, Partner Marketing

Henao left Microsoft in January and joined food company Sigma as global CMO.

During her two-plus years with Microsoft, she “propelled the most transformative initiative for the company in 20 years, with the launch of the Copilot Artificial Intelligence applications for Windows, Office, and Surface across Americas,” according to her LinkedIn account.

Her resume includes about six years with PepsiCo. She left the company in 2022 as global vice president of marketing.

Roger Yu

VP, Engineering, Azure AI Core

Yu capped off a nearly 23-year tenure with Microsoft in April, leaving to join Google as a senior director of engineering.

At Microsoft, Yu’s latest role had him leading “a global team of 100+ talented engineers developing the Azure AI Platform and Products, including Azure OpenAI, Azure Model-as-a-Service, and Azure Machine Learning,” according to his LinkedIn account.

His time with Microsoft included roles as a principal development manager for Bing data mining and as a researcher in speech recognition, meeting transcription and audio indexing.

Thomas Dohmke

CEO, GitHub

Dohmke will continue to guide the transition of Microsoft’s GitHub subsidiary into its CoreAI organization through the end of the year.

But the former GitHub CEO’s tenure ends after about four years in the company’s top spot. He previously served as GitHub’s chief product officer in 2021 and its vice president of strategic programs after Microsoft acquired the coding repository in 2018, according to his LinkedIn account. He also lists himself as co-founder and CEO of a startup in stealth.

Dohmke came to Microsoft in 2015 after the tech giant bought the HockeyApp developer operations tool he co-founded and led as CEO. He co-founded HockeyApp in 2011.

Alex Weinert

VP, Director, Identity Security

Weinert left Microsoft in April to take on the role of chief product officer at identity security company Semperis. He worked at Microsoft for about 30 years, according to his LinkedIn account.

In his latest role, he led the product, security and data science teams responsible for protecting billions of users signing into millions of applications on Microsoft’s identity platforms, according to a Semperis statement on his hiring. His team delivered Entra ID Protection, Entra Conditional Access, multifactor authentication, the Microsoft Authenticator app and other enterprise and consumer account defense and anti-fraud systems.

During his time at Microsoft, he worked on a variety of products including MSN, Visual Studio, Xbox, Active Directory and Forefront Identity Manager.

Eric Kalin

Chief Data Officer, Manufacturing Operational Unit

In August, Kalin left Microsoft and took on the role of group vice president for the North America data platform at Oracle.

During his four years with Microsoft, Kalin led “a team of very talented Specialists empowering Manufacturing organizations to leverage Microsoft Azure’s modern Data and AI platform to enable and transform semantic interoperability and drive better operational outcomes.”

His resume includes about five years with Amazon Web Services, leaving AWS in 2021 as global head of technology.

Roger Barga

VP, GM, Azure Database for MySQL

In February, Barga left Microsoft after about 20 years on and off. He then joined Oracle as senior vice president for AI and machine learning.

His most recent stint at Microsoft lasted about three years. He had previously spent about 18 years with Microsoft, leaving in 2014 to work at AWS. He left Microsoft with the title of group program manager for Azure Machine Learning.

He “initiated this business from a proof of concept demonstration to an incubation project and eventually a 200+ person engineering team,” according to his LinkedIn account. He “led product definition, engineering planning, customer engagement, along with acquisition strategy, channel and partner enablement from product inception through the public release of the Azure ML service.”

He left AWS in 2022 after eight years, departing as a general manager in its AI/ML business.

Julie Brill

Chief Privacy Officer, Corporate VP, Global Privacy, Safety, Regulatory Affairs

Brill confirmed in a post on Microsoft-owned LinkedIn that she retired from the vendor in July.

Her eight years with Microsoft included working on its data protection compliance program to fit the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Microsoft’s EU Data Boundary and Defending Your Data programs, according to her LinkedIn account.

Before joining Microsoft in 2017 as a corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, Brill served as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 2010 to 2016.

David Robinson

CTO, Worldwide Public Sector

In September, Robinson left Microsoft for Google. He now holds the title of managing director for technology strategy and delivery within Google’s public sector business.

His six years with Microsoft included developing and executing the AI, security and sovereign solutions side of the vendor’s worldwide public sector technology strategy, according to his LinkedIn account.

His resume includes about 12 years with IBM, leaving the mainframe, cloud and AI technology vendor with the title of head of North America strategic innovation investments. He left IBM in 2020 to join Microsoft.

Nanette McFerran

VP, Commercial Solutions Execution, Worldwide Commercial Finance

In March, McFerran left Microsoft after about 20 years with the vendor. She joined Google Cloud and took on the title of senior director for deal execution and governance.

Her last role with Microsoft saw her work with a “160+ team whose mission is to deliver non-standard revenue in a compliant manner,” according to her LinkedIn account. The team supported “licensing strategies and evolution to Modern and Cloud strategies” and managed “the highest risk deals in the world [while] driving change through partner compliance strategies.”

She helped to deliver more than 11,000 hours and $2 million in savings in process efficiencies. She also drove “process efficiencies in the commercial business, reducing cycle time over 50%” and managed the “empowerment and concession strategy and 16 global currencies across Commercial Licensing,” according to her LinkedIn account.

Charlotte Yarkoni

President, Commerce+Ecosystems

In April, Yarkoni left Microsoft after about nine years with the vendor.

In her most recent role, she led “the team responsible for the end-to-end customer experience across all Microsoft products, services and channels,” according to her LinkedIn account.

The C+E team is in charge of architecting “systems and solutions from discovery to transaction that make it easier for customers to do business with us” and aims to “provide customers, partners, developers, startups and students with a rich experience that enables them to achieve success with Microsoft.”

During her time as president, the C+E team oversaw the Microsoft commerce platform, customer data lake, finance, sales, partner, marketing and customer success systems plus marketplace, Microsoft Learn, Microsoft Docs and Microsoft developer community advocacy and startup engagement programs.

Her time with Microsoft included roles as COO and corporate vice president of Cloud+AI.

Lindsay Myers

VP, Cross Solutions

Myers is among the Microsoft executives to leave the vendor for AI and cloud rival Google this year, taking on the role of vice president for Google Cloud global practice go-to-market.

Her most recent role at Microsoft, where she worked for about 20 years until departing in May, saw her lead go-to-market, sales and program management teams “accountable to accelerate customer experience and solutions across the Microsoft solution areas,” according to her LinkedIn account.

She “accelerated customer cloud consumption and AI transformation through reinvention of the Microsoft Tech Centers into the Microsoft Innovation Hubs while shortening sales cycles and accelerating customer solutioning” and “improved cloud migration & consumption and accelerated customer value realization of their cloud and AI solutions through Sales leadership of the Microsoft Unified business,” according to her account.

Her efforts helped Microsoft achieve “double digit growth” and “accelerate cross-Copilot wins and scale the Copilot GTM motion,” according to her account.

Myers’ Microsoft career included time as general manager of go-to-market for the “modern work” family of products and general manager for Surface’s go-to-market.

Jeff York

VP, Global Partner Investments, Global Partner Solutions

York revealed in a LinkedIn post in September that he left Microsoft after about 23 years without revealing where he’s headed next.

In his most recent role, York led “Microsoft's multi-billion-dollar investment portfolio in the partner ecosystem, focusing on driving strategic cloud growth priorities,” according to his LinkedIn account.

He managed and defined Microsoft’s “investment strategy across all commercial solution areas, geographies, segments, and partner types” and was “responsible for designing and executing partner-led growth strategies, building and operating broad-scale incentive programs, and ensuring compliance and operational excellence across the portfolio.”

Before taking on the vice president role, he served as Microsoft CFO and general manager over business applications, according to his LinkedIn account. Accomplishments during his seven years in this position include growing the “multi-billion cloud business with consistent double-digit growth and market leadership in a number of categories.”

Chuck Graham

Corporate VP, Cloud Sourcing, Supply Chain

Graham capped an eight-year stint with Microsoft in May and joined Cisco Systems as chief supply chain officer.

At Microsoft, he delivered servers, storage and networking hardware plus service contracts to data centers globally to power Microsoft Cloud, according to his profile on Cisco’s website.

His resume includes about 17 years with Dell Technologies, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the computer maker in 2017 with the title of vice president of client supply chain planning and channel enablement.

Mark Smith

CRO, Worldwide Sales Lead, Azure Infrastructure

Smith left Microsoft in June to take the role of CRO for SAP’s business technology platform.

He spent about 21 years with Microsoft, according to his LinkedIn account. As Azure infrastructure CRO, he was a major factor in multibillion-dollar sales worldwide, managed 150 global Azure subject matter experts with a total workforce of 1,000, partnered with 50-plus global corporate and government clients and led global performance insight for the infrastructure business.

Other titles he held at Microsoft include commercial solutions area general manager and COO of Azure for Microsoft’s U.K. division.

Andy Elder

Corporate VP, Security Solutions

After about four years with Microsoft, Elder left the company in May and joined 3-D software vendor Autodesk as CRO and senior vice president.

With Microsoft, Elder and his team helped “countless organizations strengthen their security posture in an increasingly complex digital landscape,” according to a post on his LinkedIn account. His profile on Autodesk’s website adds that he “led a multibillion-dollar expansion of one of” Microsoft’s fastest-growing business units.

His resume includes about two years with Palo Alto Networks as senior vice president of core and growth, according to his LinkedIn account. His Autodesk profile adds that he “was responsible for leading the division that generated over three-quarters of company-wide business and spearheaded growth initiatives that put the company on track to nearly double its revenue.”

He also held the title of chief sales officer at Riverbed Technology for about three years.

Chris Young

EVP, Business Development, Strategy, Ventures

Young left Microsoft in March after about four years with the vendor, during which his work included increasing engagements for Microsoft’s M12 Venture Fund and guiding Microsoft’s acquisition of video game company Activision Blizzard.

Formerly one of Microsoft’s top compensated executives, Young came to the vendor in 2020, according to his LinkedIn account.

He previously served as CEO of cybersecurity vendor McAfee for nearly three years after leading the former Intel Security’s 2017 spinoff from Intel into a stand-alone company that reassumed the McAfee name.

Young, who had been senior vice president and general manager of Intel Security since October 2014, aggressively expanded McAfee’s cloud presence through organic growth and the November 2017 acquisition of cloud access security broker Skyhigh Networks.

He currently serves as a member of Qualcomm and American Express’ boards of directors.

Cindy Rose

COO, Global Enterprise Sales

Rose left Microsoft in August after about nine years with the vendor, becoming CEO of ads and public relations firm WPP.

She held that COO role with Microsoft for about three years. Before that, Rose served as president of Microsoft Western Europe for about two years.

Rose came to Microsoft in 2016 after about three years with Vodafone, according to her LinkedIn account. She left Vodafone with the title of managing director of its U.K. consumer division.

Angela Heise

Corporate VP, Worldwide Public Sector

Heise left Microsoft in September after about four years with the tech giant. She continues to serve as a board member of private mortgage insurance company Essent Group.

Her work at Microsoft ranged “from modernizing governments and empowering educators to protecting critical infrastructure and advancing global cybersecurity,” according to her LinkedIn account.

Before joining the vendor in 2021, she worked at Leidos for about three years. She left the solution provider in 2019 as president in charge of its $3.8 billion civil business, which included about 10,000 employees delivering enterprise IT and security products and services for American federal agencies, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence and commercial energy clients.