This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is making some leadership changes to free up CEO Satya Nadella so he can spend more time on what he sees as the company’s biggest priority: building out its AI and engineering muscle.
Judson Althoff, who has been running Microsoft’s global sales organization, is stepping up as CEO of the company’s commercial business. He’ll now lead a new commercial leadership team that pulls together voices from engineering, sales, marketing, operations, and finance to help steer product strategy and execution.
Chief marketing officer Takeshi Numoto and his team will also move under Althoff, while still keeping a direct line to Nadella on things like business models, consumer marketing, and brand strategy.
In a memo to staff, Nadella tied the shuffle directly to the AI wave. We are in the midst of a tectonic AI platform shift, he wrote. It requires us to manage and grow our business today, while also building the new frontier.
Althoff, who joined Microsoft in 2013 after a long run at Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), now takes a bigger role just as the company doubles down on AI.
It will be interesting to monitor Microsoft’s EPS in the upcoming quarter, which currently clocks in at $13.69 TTM ended in June this year. Mind you, its average EPS without NRI growth rate is at an astonishing 16% per year.