According to a report from ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, Cortana chief Javier Soltero is leaving Microsoft. The news comes just eight months after he was promoted into the role from Office VP. The news was announced internally today, and he's expected to leave the company by the end of the year.
Soltero originally joined Microsoft at the tail end of 2014, as part of the acquisition of Acompli. He was a co-founder and the CEO of Acompli, an email app that eventually turned into Outlook Mobile after the acquisition. He became the general manager of Outlook Mobile until mid-2015, when he was promoted to corporate vice president of Outlook. In November 2016, he became the CVP of Office, before becoming CVP of Cortana in March 2018.
Microsoft has been shuffling around Cortana quite a bit recently. It's being repositioned as more of an accessory to existing products than a standalone product. For example, you'll be interacting with Cortana in different ways from Outlook than you will from the Windows 10 shell. The division was also recently moved from the AI and Research team to the Experiences and Devices team.
According to the report, Soltero will be doing entrepreneurial things after he leaves Microsoft. According to his LinkedIn profile, he's still on the board of directors at Grupo Guayacán, a Puerto Rico-based non-profit organization, and he's on the President's Global Advisory Council at Carnegie Mellon University.
Update: Javier Soltero has confirmed that he is leaving the company
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