Tag Archives: Board & Management Changes

Another longtime Microsoft executive is retiring

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It’s already been a busy year for high-profile Microsoft departures, with longtime Xbox chief Phil Spencer bowing out last month alongside his expected successor Sarah Bond. Today it’s the turn of Microsoft's head of Experiences + Devices, Rajesh Jha, who leaves after more than 35 years at the company.

Jha, who oversaw some of Microsoft’s most important products and services, including Windows, Office and Teams, said in a press release that he’s been planning for his succession alongside CEO Satya Nadella for a while. Rather than bringing in a direct replacement, four members of his team will be promoted to executive vice president and report directly to Nadella.

Taking up these new more senior roles are Office EVP and LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslanksky, Windows and Surface president Pavan Davuluri, president of business and industry Copilot (BIC) Charles Lamanna, and Microsoft 365 Core chief Perry Clarke. The outgoing Jha, who said his long career at Microsoft had been "an incredible privilege," will officially transition out of Microsoft on July 1, after which he’ll remain in an advisory role.

"When I think about the pantheon of leaders who have truly shaped this company, Rajesh stands firmly among them," Nadella said in a statement, adding that Jha had been a "constant" during his own time at the company. "He embodies the commitment that helped build and transform Microsoft into the company it is today, and it is on the strength of that foundation that we will continue to move forward."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/another-longtime-microsoft-executive-is-retiring-174453788.html?src=rss

Disney announces Josh D’Amaro will be its new CEO after Iger departs

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Stop me if you've heard this one before. Disney has announced a successor to outgoing CEO Bob Iger, effective in March. Josh D’Amaro, current chairman of Disney Experiences, was tapped for the role in a unanimous vote by the company's board of directors.

D’Amaro has been at Disney for 28 years, where he oversaw theme parks, cruises and consumer products including video games. The company had previously appointed Bob Chapek, the Disney Parks chairman at the time, as successor to Bob Iger in 2020. At the time, Iger had served as CEO since 2005. But Chapek only lasted until 2022, when Bob Iger returned to take the helm once again amid company struggles. Disney formed a committee to find an appropriate successor in 2023, with Iger mentoring potential candidates along the way.

Iger's time at the helm saw the media giant make a number of significant moves such as launching the Disney+ streaming service, buying Hulu and acquiring 20th Century Fox's film and television studios. Iger will continue to serve as a board member and senior advisor until his retirement at the end of the year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/disney-announces-josh-damaro-will-be-its-new-ceo-after-iger-departs-161616420.html?src=rss

Meta appoints ex-Trump and Bush official as its new president and vice chairman

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Meta has appointed Dina Powell McCormick, a banking executive and former Republican White House official, as its new president and vice-chairman. The company said McCormick will help guide its overall strategy and execution as a part of the management team.

“Dina’s experience at the highest levels of global finance, combined with her deep relationships around the world, makes her uniquely suited to help Meta manage this next phase of growth as the company’s president and vice chairman,” said Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

McCormick was a partner at Goldman Sachs and ran its Global Sovereign investment banking business. She was most recently vice chair, president and head of global client services at merchant bank BDT & MSD Partners. McCormick was also deputy national security advisor to President Donald Trump during his first term and held several roles during the George W. Bush administration, including assistant secretary of state for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She is married to Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA).

Meta’s new president joined the company’s board last April, but she resigned in December. Just a few weeks later, McCormick has taken on a higher-profile role at Meta. 

McCormick is the second former Trump official that Meta has appointed to a prominent role this month. Last week, the company hired Curtis Joseph Mahoney, who was most recently a corporate vice president and general counsel at Microsoft, as its chief legal officer. Mahoney was a deputy US trade representative during the first Trump administration.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/meta-appoints-ex-trump-and-bush-official-as-its-new-president-and-vice-chairman-151048263.html?src=rss

Apple’s Johny Srouji could continue the company’s executive exodus, according to report

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Apple's Johny Srouji may be the latest company executive to seek greener pastures, according to a report from Bloomberg. The report said that Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies, told Tim Cook that he is "seriously considering leaving in the near future."

While the report didn't mention if Srouji has another job lined up, Bloomberg's sources claimed that he wants to join another company if he leaves Apple. Srouji joined the company in 2008 to develop Apple's first in-house system-on-a-chip and eventually led the transition to Apple silicon.

If Srouji leaves Apple, he would be the latest in a string of departures of longtime execs. At the start of the month, Apple announced that John Giannandrea, the company's senior vice president for machine learning and AI strategy, would be retiring from his role in spring 2026. A couple of days later, Bloomberg reported that the company's head of interface design, Alan Dye, would be leaving for a role at Meta. Adding to those exits, Apple also revealed that Kate Adams, who has been Apple's general counsel since 2017, and Lisa Jackson, vice president for Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, will both be leaving in early 2026.

The shakeup at the executive level comes after Bloomberg's Mark Gurman previously reported that Cook may not be preparing for his own departure as CEO next year. Gurman's prediction counters a report from the Financial Times that claimed that Apple was accelerating succession plans for Cook with an expected stepping down sometime next year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apples-johny-srouji-could-continue-the-companys-executive-exodus-according-to-report-200750252.html?src=rss

Apple hires Google veteran as its new vice president of AI

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Apple has tapped AI researcher Amar Subramanya, a longtime Google exec who was most recently corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft, as its new VP of AI. The company also announced that current AI exec, John Giannandrea, will retire in 2026.

Subramanya, who Apple describes as a "renowned AI researcher," spent 16 years at Google, where he was head of engineering for Gemini. He left Google earlier this year for Microsoft. In a press release, Apple said that Subramanya will report to Craig Federighi and will "be leading critical areas, including Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation." 

It's not entirely surprising that Apple is shaking up its AI leadership. Giannandrea joined Apple in 2018 after a stint at Google that included VP of search. While his hiring was seen as a major coup for Apple at the time, the company has faced some significant setbacks since. Most notably, its failure to deliver a more personalized, AI-centric version of Siri that it previewed last year. Giannandrea, who oversaw Siri for years, has shouldered much of the blame for the delays. Bloomberg reported earlier this year that Apple CEO Tim Cook had "lost confidence in the ability of AI head John Giannandrea to execute on product development" and put other executives in charge of Siri instead. 

In a statement, Cook said he was "thankful" for Giannandrea's contributions to the company and credited Federighi with pushing the revamped Siri forward. "In addition to growing his leadership team and AI responsibilities with Amar’s joining, Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year.”


This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-hires-google-veteran-as-its-new-vice-president-of-ai-234820021.html?src=rss

Mastodon’s founder is no longer its CEO

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Mastodon's founder Eugen Rochko has officially stepped down as CEO. The move comes ten months after the company announced it would transition into a nonprofit entity and that Rochko would leave his post. Rochko will take on an advisory role with the company. 

In a blog post about this decision, Rochko pointed to a desire for guardrails to avoid becoming another egotistical founder "sabotaging thriving communities." He added, "But it would be uncouth for me to pretend that there isn’t some self-interest involved. Being in charge of a social media project is, turns out, quite the stressful endeavour, and I don’t have the right personality for it." 

In his place, Felix Hlatky has taken on the role of executive director. Hlatky has worked at Mastodon since March 2020 and plans to focus on expanding the team, long-term financial stability and making it easier to run servers safely and efficiently.

Currently, Mastodon is operating as a nonprofit in the US, but aims to set up a permanent home base as a nonprofit in Belgium, known as an AISBL. Mastodon previously held nonprofit status in Germany but lost that it last year. 

Mastodon has pursued outside funding since its announced transition to a nonprofit. It shared that Stock Exchange co-founder Jeff Atwood and his family gave the organization €2.2 million ($2.5 million). Part of that influx of cash has gone toward hiring new employees in its engineering, marketing, operations and product teams. Rochko also received a one-time €1 million ($1.2 million) compensation after ten years of "taking less than a fair market salary." 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/mastodons-founder-is-no-longer-its-ceo-143011438.html?src=rss

Apple is reportedly getting ready to replace Tim Cook as early as next year

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According to the Financial Times, Tim Cook may be ready to leave his position as soon as next year, and Apple's board and senior executives have ramped up their preparations to secure his replacement.

Cook, who has been at the helm of Apple for more than 14 years, succeeded Steve Jobs and led the company to a market cap of more than $4 trillion. Cook's tenure since 2011 has overseen the introduction of hardware, including Apple Watch, AirPods and Vision Pro, but also services like Apple Arcade and Apple TV+. According to the Financial Times's sources, Apple's senior vice president of engineering, John Ternus, will most likely take on the CEO role, but this decision hasn't been finalized yet. Ternus has been with Apple since 2001 as part of its Product Design team and eventually stepped into a vice president role within the Hardware Engineering division, where he played a heavy role in the company's transition to Apple silicon.

According to the Financial Times, Apple isn't planning to announce the new CEO before its January earnings report. However, the report also noted that this announcement would come earlier in the year to allow the leadership team to transition smoothly in time for all of Apple's annual events. Earlier this year, Apple also announced Sabih Khan as the new chief operating officer, taking over for Jeff Williams.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-is-reportedly-getting-ready-to-replace-tim-cook-as-early-as-next-year-171407974.html?src=rss

Waymo raises $5.6 billion to fund Austin and Atlanta expansion

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Waymo has raised another huge chunk of change from investors. The company announced on its blog that it secured an “oversubscribed investment round” of $5.6 billion in funding, the largest of which came from Google's parent company Alphabet.

The company is working with Uber to expand to Austin and Atlanta by the early part of next year. Waymo says it plans to use this latest infusion of capital for the expansions. This latest round brings Waymo’s total capital fundraising to $11.1 billion, with the $5.5 billion it picked up in two earlier rounds in 2020 and 2021.

Waymo currently operates in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix with a curbside transport service for Sky Harbor International Airport through its Waymo One driving system for businesses. The company announced it’s also started offering “fully autonomous freeway operations in Phoenix and San Francisco.”

The new funding will also help Waymo advance its Waymo One system, an adaptable autonomous driving system for different businesses. Waymo wrote on its blog it plans to “support a variety of business applications over time” through Waymo One.

Alphabet ponied up $5 billion for Waymo back in July as part of what Alphabet’s chief financial officer Ruth Porat called a “multi-year investment.” The driverless vehicle fleet logged a total of 25 million miles in July outpacing companies like Uber, which sold its self-driving unit four years ago before joining forces with Waymo.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymo-raises-56-billion-to-fund-austin-and-atlanta-expansion-172031686.html?src=rss

Waymo raises $5.6 billion to fund Austin and Atlanta expansion

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Waymo has raised another huge chunk of change from investors. The company announced on its blog that it secured an “oversubscribed investment round” of $5.6 billion in funding, the largest of which came from Google's parent company Alphabet.

The company is working with Uber to expand to Austin and Atlanta by the early part of next year. Waymo says it plans to use this latest infusion of capital for the expansions. This latest round brings Waymo’s total capital fundraising to $11.1 billion, with the $5.5 billion it picked up in two earlier rounds in 2020 and 2021.

Waymo currently operates in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix with a curbside transport service for Sky Harbor International Airport through its Waymo One driving system for businesses. The company announced it’s also started offering “fully autonomous freeway operations in Phoenix and San Francisco.”

The new funding will also help Waymo advance its Waymo One system, an adaptable autonomous driving system for different businesses. Waymo wrote on its blog it plans to “support a variety of business applications over time” through Waymo One.

Alphabet ponied up $5 billion for Waymo back in July as part of what Alphabet’s chief financial officer Ruth Porat called a “multi-year investment.” The driverless vehicle fleet logged a total of 25 million miles in July outpacing companies like Uber, which sold its self-driving unit four years ago before joining forces with Waymo.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymo-raises-56-billion-to-fund-austin-and-atlanta-expansion-172031686.html?src=rss

Craig Duncan to succeed Alan Hartman as Xbox Game Studios head

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The head of Xbox Game Studios Alan Hartman is set to retire at the end of November, marking an end to 30 years working at Microsoft. Appointed to succeed him is Craig Duncan, the studio head of Rare, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2002. To fill in for Duncan’s eventual departure from the studio, Joe Neate and Jim Horth will take over as co-leads of Rare, as seen in an internal memo seen by The Verge:

In his new role, Craig will continue to focus on helping our studios deliver high-quality, differentiated game experiences that can grow into successful franchises and reach more players by investing in new IP. Craig will report to me and join the Game Content and Studios leadership team, working closely with Alan during the transition. The existing XGS leadership team Alan established will remain intact and report to Craig.

I am also pleased to announce that Joe Neate and Jim Horth will take over as co-leads of Rare. Their leadership has played a crucial role in Rare’s growth, and I am confident they will elevate the studio and its games to even greater heights.

Interestingly, Hartman had only had his job as head of Xbox Game Studios for less than a year. Hartman led Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 for almost two decades before being pulled in to replace former Xbox Games Studio head Matt Booty last year. His retirement is somewhat surprising, but since it’s not due to any controversies in the company, it’s likely just a case of him wanting to retire from 30 years at Microsoft.

This change of heads comes about a month after Microsoft laid off 650 employees. These layoffs are related to its decision in 2022 to acquire Activision Blizzard. While no games are canceled, this change of heads may signify a shift in Xbox Game Studios' future plans.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/craig-duncan-to-succeed-alan-hartman-as-xbox-game-studios-head-170254040.html?src=rss