Earlier this week, Microsoft confirmed its intentions to reorganize its sales and marketing teams while remaining coy on the topic of layoffs. Despite the lack of numbers forthcoming from the Redmond giant, it is believed that thousands of jobs could end up on the chopping block as a result of a restructure of its global sales workforce.
Now, amid the uncertainty for a sizeable portion of Microsoft"s employees, one of its C-level executives has decided to part ways. Capping off a career spanning around 24 years, Jim DuBois has served as the company"s Chief Information Officer since initially taking over the role in a caretaker capacity in mid-2013 after the departure of then-CIO Tony Scott. Prior to his elevation, DuBois had served in a variety of positions, most notably as Vice President of the Microsoft Products and Services IT team.
Succeeding DuBois will be Kurt DelBene who will be filling a new Chief Digital Officer role at the company. The promotion comes a little more than two years after he had returned to Microsoft as Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Planning. His name may sound familiar to some as the new CDO had previously ended a tenure of 21 years in December 2013 as president of the Microsoft Office Division. His attrition came after having been appointed by President Obama to head up the operations of the troubled HealthCare.gov website two months after Microsoft originally offered to help the US Government.
As part of his new position, DelBene will provide oversight for Microsoft"s digital transformation, requiring close interactions with the company"s IT and core engineering teams, while retaining his existing responsibilities for corporate strategy.