Microsoft Executive Vice President and head of Corporate Strategy and Core Services Engineering Kurt DelBene, is leaving the company at the end of its fiscal 2021. DelBene isn’t being replaced; his job is being divided among different executives.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella let employees know about DelBene’s plans to leave the company on January 25.
DelBene joined Microsoft in 1992 and ended up leading engineering and marketing for Office. He left Microsoft in 2013 to go to Healthcare.gov as senior advisor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services help fix the Affordable Care Act enrollment web site. After leaving that role, DelBene joined Madrona Venture Group in September 2014, to focus on investing and advising tech startups in the Pacific Northwest.
DelBene returned to Microsoft in 2015 to lead Corporate Strategy and Core Services Engineering. He was charged with leading both cross-engineering and cross-business strategy, “with an emphasis on opportunities that span product and engineering boundaries,” according to Microsoft’s press release announcing his appointment.
DelBene also was charged with identifying new investments and assisting Nadella in executing “strategic initiatives.” Recently, DelBene has been leading Microsoft’s COVID-19 response work, which he will continue to do through the end of June, when he will retire.
DelBene is a member of Microsoft’s Senior Leadership Team.
According to Nadella, Core Services Engineering and Digital Security and Risk Engineering will transition to Executive Vice President Scott Guthrie’s Cloud and AI organization. Microsoft Business Operations is moving to Finance under Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood. And Corporate Strategy will become part of new Business Development Chief Chris Young’s organization.
Update: Here’s a bit more about how the coming changes will be handled by Guthrie’s org:
Core Services Engineering is led by Andrew Wilson — who joined Microsoft in 2020 from Accenture and also is Chief Digital Officer. Core Services Engineering acts as the internal IT department for Microsoft’s 170,000 employees. Core Services Engineering also works with customers to show off Microsoft’s deployment and operation of its own cloud services.
Microsoft Chief Information Security Officer Bret Arsenault runs Digital Security & Risk Engineering. Arsenault is going to join Wilson’s Core Services Engineering unit. He oversees Microsoft’s information security, compliance and business continuity teams.
As of February 1, Wilson is joining Guthrie’s leadership team, reporting directly to him. Arsenault will report to Wilson.
