Rajesh Jha, executive vice president of Microsoft's experiences and devices group, is retiring after more than 35 years at the company, with a transition set for July 1st before moving into an advisory role. The departure has triggered a significant restructuring of Microsoft's upper management that shortens the distance between product leaders and the chief executive.
Rather than promoting a single successor, Microsoft is elevating Perry Clarke, Charles Lamanna, Pavan Davuluri, and Ryan Roslansky to executive vice president, all now reporting directly to CEO Satya Nadella. This represents a flattening of the organisational hierarchy; previously, these leaders reported to Jha.
Jha joined in the early 1990s and rose through the Office division before taking the executive vice president role, overseeing the Windows 8 era, the successful Surface hardware launch, and the ongoing integration of artificial intelligence into Microsoft products, with Office becoming Microsoft 365, Windows going subscription-based, and Copilot emerging as the company's answer to ChatGPT.
Jha's memo to employees emphasised continuity over disruption. He noted that he and Nadella have been working on succession for some time, and between now and June, his leadership team will finalise the full cascade of details needed for this transition. Nadella specifically called out Jha's operational rigour and ability to make hard strategic calls, the kind of leadership that guided Microsoft through its pivot from Windows licensing to cloud subscriptions.
The restructuring also promotes Jeff Teper to executive vice president, and Sumit Chauhan and Kirk Koenigsbauer to president roles. Teper has been the driving force behind Microsoft Teams and SharePoint, products that generate billions in enterprise revenue, and his promotion signals where Microsoft sees growth: collaboration tools infused with artificial intelligence capabilities.
This move sits within a broader pattern of restructuring at Microsoft aimed at accelerating the company's artificial intelligence agenda. Nadella has shifted his focus away from sales and marketing to concentrate on artificial intelligence, product innovation, and data centre expansion, allowing him and senior engineering leaders to dedicate more time to Microsoft's next phase of technological growth. The flatter structure pushes decision-making closer to Nadella himself, eliminating a layer between product execution and strategic vision.
The timing reflects urgency in the artificial intelligence competition. One Microsoft executive noted that Nadella is trying to demonstrate a sense of urgency and to get out of some of the structures that exist and make the route to him easier. Microsoft's Copilot suite represents the most ambitious product transformation in the company's history, and managing that transformation requires leaders who can operate without a playbook because no playbook exists for integrating a technology this powerful and unpredictable into enterprise workflows at global scale.
The restructuring also follows Microsoft's massive investment in artificial intelligence through its partnership with OpenAI and its own internal development efforts. Jha's departure, coming weeks after Xbox chief Phil Spencer announced his retirement, signals generational change at the executive level whilst the company positions itself for an AI-first future.