Microsoft appoints Judson Althoff as new CEO of company's commercial business unit

New Delhi: Microsoft has elevated its Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Judson Althoff to the position of Chief Executive Officer of its commercial business. The announcement was made on Wednesday. According to media reports, Althoff will lead a new structure that brings together sales, marketing, and operations into one organisation. The move is aimed at streamlining Microsoft's commercial efforts and driving further growth, especially in the cloud and AI-driven space.

Judson Althoff, who has been with Microsoft since 2013, earlier served as Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. Before joining the tech giant, he held senior sales leadership roles at Oracle Corp and EMC. He is also an independent director on the board of Ecolab and a member of its Audit and Finance Committee. As per his LinkedIn profile, Althoff completed his graduation from the Illinois Institute of Technology with a degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. His career spans over two decades of leadership in technology, sales and commercial growth.

Expanded leadership role

With this new appointment, Althoff will head a freshly created commercial leadership team. This team will include senior leaders across engineering, sales, marketing, operations, and finance. Microsoft has credited him with driving uninterrupted commercial cloud revenue growth, backed by strong partnerships with global clients.

Nadella on the reorganisation

In a blog post, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella explained the reason behind the restructuring. He said it would allow him and the engineering leaders to be "laser focused on our highest ambition technical work - across our datacenter buildout, systems architecture, AI science and product innovation." Nadella added, "We are in the midst of a tectonic AI platform shift, one that requires us to both manage and grow our at-scale commercial business today, while building the new frontier and executing flawlessly across both."

Focus on AI transformation

Microsoft said the company has consistently reported growth in its commercial cloud business under Althoff’s leadership. The company credited this success to strong partnerships with customers and AI-led transformation that is reshaping business outcomes across industries.