Microsoft chief product officer Panos Panay is leaving Microsoft to oversee Windows development and the company's Surface product line. In a statement on Monday, Microsoft told employees: "After nearly 20 years with the company, Panos Panay has decided to leave Microsoft."
Panay first joined Microsoft in 2004 as a group program manager. After overseeing the company's Surface product line, Panay became the company's chief product officer in 2018, leading the development of Windows 11.
Below is the full email sent to employees by Microsoft Vice President Rajesh Jha:
Teams,
Panos Panay has decided to leave Microsoft after nearly 20 years at the company. Panos has had an incredible impact on our products and culture, as well as the broader device ecosystem. Under Panos' leadership, the team created the iconic Surface brand with beloved products. Most recently, as a leader in Windows, the team has brought amazing services and experiences to hundreds of millions of people with Windows 11 on innovative devices, including those from our OEM partners. He will be missed and I am personally very grateful for his many contributions over the years. Please join me in wishing him well.
Going forward, we will double down on our strategy. With Panos' transitional help, the changes will be effective immediately.
Building chips, systems and devices across Windows, clients and cloud for the AI world. The team will be led by Pavan Davuluri, who will report directly to me. Brett Ostrum, Nino Storniolo, Linda Averett, Ken Pan, Ralf Groene, Aidan Marcuss, Carlos Picoto, Stevie Bathiche, Robin Seiler, Ruben Caballero and Anuj Gosalia will report to Pavan with their teams. Windows planning and release management will continue to be the responsibility of this team. Our commitment to Surface and MR remains unchanged.
Build experiences that integrate the web, services, and Windows for the AI world. To this end, Shilpa Ranganathan, Jeff Johnson and Ali Akgun will report directly to Mikhail Parakhin and form a new Windows and Web Experience team, keeping their teams unchanged.
Yusuf Mehdi will be responsible for leading the Windows and Surface business alongside our OEM and retail partners.
In addition, Charles Simonyi, Terri Chudzik and Erin Kolb will join the E+D management team, and Ralf Groene and Mike Davidson will work together on the best coordination of the design team.
We will be scheduling AMA time in the coming days to answer questions. Let us continue to focus on executing our existing plans. Thank you for all you do and the impact you have on our customers and partners.
best wishes
Rajesh