Windows leader Panos Panay leaves Microsoft

Team,

After nearly 20 years with the company, Panos Panay decided to leave Microsoft. Panos has had an incredible impact on our products and culture as well as the broader device ecosystem. Under Panos’ leadership, the team created the iconic Surface brand with beloved products. Most recently, as the leader in Windows, the team has brought incredible services and experiences to hundreds of millions of people with Windows 11 on innovative devices, including those from our OEM partners. He will be missed and I am personally very grateful for his many contributions over the years. Please join me in wishing him well.

In the future, we will double down on our strategy. These changes will take effect immediately with Panos’ help in the transition.

Build silicon, systems, and devices that span Windows, client, and cloud for an AI world. This team will be led by Pavan Davuluriwho will report directly to me. Brett Ostrum, Nino Storniolo, Linda Averett, Ken Pan, Ralf Groene, Aidan Marcuss, Carlos Picoto, Stevie Bathiche, Robin Seiler, Ruben Caballero and Anuj Gosalia will travel to report to Pavan with their teams intact. Windows release planning and management will continue to be a part of this team. Our commitment to Surface and MR remains unchanged.

Create experiences that combine web, services and Windows for an AI world. To this end, Shilpa Ranganathan, Jeff Johnson and Ali Akgun will report directly to Mikhail Parakhin and form a new Windows and Web Experiences team, growing with their teams intact.

Yusuf Mehdi will assume responsibility for leading the Windows and Surface businesses with our OEM and Retail partners.

Furthermore, Charles Simonyi, Terri Chudzik and Erin Kolb will join the E+D management teams and Ralf Groene And Mike Davidson will work together on the best alignment of design teams.

We will schedule time for an AMA in the coming days to answer questions. Let’s continue to stay focused on executing our existing plans. Thank you for everything you do and the impact you have on our customers and partners.

Best,

Rajesh