Microsoft Corp. has announced that, effective September 2008, Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division (MBD), will retire from the company following a nine-month transition period to transfer his daily responsibilities and management of the division.
The company also announced that Stephen Elop, formerly chief operating officer (COO) at Juniper Networks Inc., has been hired as president of the Microsoft Business Division.
Raikes, 49, joined Microsoft in 1981 and spent his early years driving the company’s applications marketing strategy and success in graphical applications for the Apple Macintosh and the Microsoft Windows operating system. As director of Applications Marketing, he shaped the product strategy and design of Microsoft Office. In 1990, Raikes was promoted to vice president of Office Systems. From 1992 to 2000, he was responsible for Microsoft’s sales, marketing and service initiatives, and became group vice president of the Worldwide Sales and Support Group. In 2000, Raikes returned to the business groups to focus on growing Microsoft’s productivity applications and expanded the business to include unified communications, business intelligence, business applications and services.
Todd Bishop reports for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “The past week has brought a series of Microsoft executive departures, and the company [yesterday] confirmed another: Rob Short, corporate vice president on the Windows Core Technology team, opted not to return to the company after a yearlong sabbatical. His decision was effective in December. Short had been at Microsoft since 1988, according to his online bio.”
“The news about Short follows word of the planned departures or retirements of Bruce Jaffe, the company’s acquisitions chief; Charles Fitzgerald, general manager of platform strategy; and Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division. Separately, Bill Gates, the company’s chairman, will shift to a part-time role later this year,” Bishop reports.
Full article here.
Like rats from a sinking ship.
