Microsoft to add new Chief Strategy and Digital Officers to its executive roster
Microsoft is beefing up the team reporting to Senior Leadership Team member Kurt Delbene starting next month. Delbene, who is Microsoft's Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Core Services Engineering and Operations (as well as the company's CHief Digital Officer) is getting two new reports, both of whom are industry veterans.
Bobby Yerramilli-Rao is joining the company as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) and Corporate Vice President (CVP) of Corporate Strategy, leading the Corporate Strategy team and reporting directly to Delbene. And Andrew Wilson will become the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) and CVP of Core Services Engineering, reporting directly to Delbene. Core Services Engineering is Microsoft's own internal IT operations -- basically, the team at Microsoft that builds and manages the products and services that Microsoft itself runs on.
Yerramilli-Rao is the co-founder and co-chair of Cambridge Epigenetix, a biosciences company, as well as co-founder of Inflex, a stealth-mode company working on applying biochemistry to cancer treatment. He also was the co-founder and managing partner of Fusion Global Capital, formerly Hermes Growth Partners (HGP), according to his LinkedIn profile. Wilson had been with Accenture for 31 years and was Chief Information Officer of the company for more than six years. Both execs will officially start at Microsoft the first week of February.
Delbene rejoined Microsoft in 2015 after serving as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, where he was charged with trying to fix Healthcare.gov. After leaving that role, DelBene joined Madrona Venture Group in September 2014, to focus on investing and advising tech startups in the Pacific Northwest. Before leaving Microsoft in 2013, he was President of Microsoft's Office Division.
In other organizational news, Microsoft publicly announced on January 17 that it is adding two new senior appointments to its government affairs team and will be opening a new Microsoft representation office to the United Nations in New York. The two appointments: John Frank, currently vice president of EU government affairs, who will establish the new UN representation office; and Danish Ambassador Casper Klynge, who will join Microsoft as the new VP of European Government Affairs. Frank and Klynge will both report directly to Microsoft President Brad Smith.