Stephen Elop, the man once tipped as a future CEO of Microsoft, is leaving the company amid a management reshuffle.
Chief executive Satya Nadella announced the restructuring in an email to staff on Wednesday.
"Stephen and I have agreed that now is the right time for him to retire from Microsoft," Nadella said. "I regret the loss of leadership that this represents, and look forward to seeing where his next destination will be."
Nadella has created a new Windows and Devices Group (WDG) at Microsoft that subsumes Elop’s devices unit as well as the firm’s operating systems unit. It will be headed up by current OS chief Terry Myerson.
Microsoft named Elop as its new devices chief just over a year ago, ahead of the completion of its Nokia acquisition. As CEO of Nokia, Elop brokered the Finnish vendor’s sale to Microsoft, before returning to his former employer.
Elop is one of a handful of senior execs who will leave Microsoft "at the conclusion of a transition period," Nadella said.
The others are Kirill Tatarinov, whose Dynamics business will become part of Scott Guthrie’s Cloud and Enterprise team; 25-year company veteran Eric Rudder; and Mark Penn, who has chosen to leave the company to form a private equity fund.
"To better align our capabilities and, ultimately, deliver better products and services our customers love at a more rapid pace, I have decided to organise our engineering effort into three groups that work together to deliver on our strategy and ambitions," Nadella said. "The changes take effect today."
