Ballmer's leaving: Who's next?

 Microsoft acquired Tony Bates along with its purchase of Skype. He's been running Skype and has moved up the ranks recently as the head of business development and evangelism. Mary Jo Foley says he's near the top.

Tami Reller is a 12-year veteran of Microsoft and is Executive VP of Marketing for the Windows team.

Satya Nadella has the advantage of having served in several management positions aorund Microsoft and is now president of the Server and Tools Business.

Before taking over as CEO of Nokia in 2010, Stephen Elop served as president of the Microsoft Business Division. Elop and Ballmer inked a major partnership to make Nokia prime partner for Windows phones.

Stephen Sinofsky former head of Windows left on his own or was booted the company in 2012 after disappointment with his pet project Windows 8 . However, he is capable. Can he do what Steve Jobs did upon his return to Apple?

Kevin Johnson has retired twice already. Once from Juniper Networks and once from Microsoft. He did run Platforms and Services for Microsoft before he left.

Windows Phone VP Terry Myerson is a potential candidate. He recently made news when he said his company didn't need to build a Windows phone.

Microsoft has employed several females in their management level including Julie Larson-Green who is  executive vice president, devices and studios.

Qi Lu's stock is on the rise. He's been head of Microsoft's Online Services Division, is now chief of the new Applications and Services group in the most recent reorg . Lu is in charge of engineering for Bing, MSN, Office 365, Office servers (Exchange, SharePoint, Lync) and clients, Dynamics CRM and ERP, Skype and Yammer.