Microsoft CEO Relinquishes Some Duties, Names Althoff Head of Commercial Business

By Connor Hart

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella is handing off some responsibilities in the midst of what he called a tectonic artificial-intelligence platform shift.

Nadella on Wednesday said in a note to employees at the global technology company that Judson Althoff has been promoted to helm the company's commercial business. Althoff will also lead the company's new commercial leadership team and oversee marketing, with Chief Marketing Officer Takeshi Numoto and his team reporting directly to Althoff.

The shift in responsibilities will allow Nadella to increase focus on the company's technical work. Chief Operating Officer Carolina Dybeck Happe will continue to report to Nadella while closely partnering with Jason, the memo said.

"Our success depends on enabling commercial and public sector customers and partners to combine their human capital with new AI capabilities to change the frontier of how they operate," Nadella wrote. "To accelerate this, we will increasingly need to bring together sales, marketing, operations, and engineering to drive growth and strengthen our position as the partner of choice for AI transformation."

Althoff has spent the past nine years leading Microsoft's global sales organization, having played a key role in developing the Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions division, Nadella said. He will now oversee the operations and marketing teams that drive sales of Microsoft's software and services to businesses, though he will not manage the engineering teams that develop the products.

This structure, Nadella said, will tighten feedback loops between what customers need and how the company can deliver and support them.

"This will also allow our engineering leaders and me to be laser focused on our highest ambition technical work-across our datacenter buildout, systems architecture, AI science, and product innovation-to lead with intensity and pace in this generational platform shift," he wrote.

Write to Connor Hart at connor.hart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 01, 2025 12:49 ET (16:49 GMT)