Yusuf Mehdi & Mikhail Parakhin New Roles At Microsoft With Panos Panay’s Departure

Microsoft’s chief product officer Panos Panay is leaving the company and with that there were some internal leadership changes. Including Yusuf Mehdi and Mikhail Parakhin who are both super involved with Bing have newish roles.

Yusuf Mehdi: According to some reports, Yusuf Mehdi will be replacing the bulk of Panos Panay role. “Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s consumer marketing head, will “take on the responsibility of leading the Windows and Surface businesses with our OEM and Retail partners.” The organizational shift comes at a busy time for Microsoft, as it doubles down on adding AI features to Windows 11, while the rumored release of Windows 12 is expected to arrive next year.” Yusuf Mehdi has been with Microsoft for over 30 years.

Mikhail Parakhin: Mikhail Parakhin, in the image above and someone we quote a ton here around Bing Chat and Bing Search, is now responsible for a new “Windows and Web Experiences Team”. This will “create experiences that connect web, services and Windows for an AI world.”

Mikhail Parakhin said on X that this does not mean he is leaving his role with Bing Search and Bing Chat, he said “Yep, definitely, it’s an addition to our team, not a different role.”

Yep, definitely, it’s an addition to our team, not a different role.

— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) September 18, 2023

Congrats @MParakhin I heard you will be heading windows now!

— Teknium (e/λ) (@Teknium1) September 18, 2023

Thank you! I have been the biggest Windows fan since 3.0, lots of work ahead of us.

— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) September 18, 2023

Mikhail Parakhin joined Microsoft originally in 2007 but left to work at Yandex, the Russian search engine, in 2014, becoming the CTO there until he went back to Microsoft in 2019 to lead up Bing – technically, people call him the CEO of Bing. But:

CEO, Advertising and Web Services

— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) September 18, 2023

Here is the email Microsoft sent internally:

Team,

After nearly 20 years at the company, Panos Panay has decided to leave Microsoft. Panos has had an incredible impact on our products and culture as well as the broader devices ecosystem. Under Panos’ leadership, the team created the iconic Surface brand with loved products. More recently, as the leader of Windows, the team has brought amazing services and experiences to hundreds of millions 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.

Moving forward, we will double down on our strategy. These changes will be effective immediately with Panos’ help in the transition.

Build silicon, systems and devices that span Windows, client and cloud for an AI world. This 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 move to report to Pavan with their teams intact. Windows planning and release management will continue to be in this team. Our commitment to Surface and MR remains unchanged.

Build experiences that blend web, services and Windows for an AI world. To this end, Shilpa Ranganathan, Jeff Johnson and Ali Akgun will directly report to Mikhail Parakhin and form a new Windows and Web Experiences Team, moving with their teams intact.

Yusuf Mehdi will take on the responsibility of leading the Windows and Surface businesses with our OEM and Retail partners.

In addition, Charles Simonyi, Terri Chudzik and Erin Kolb will join the E+D management teams and Ralf Groene and Mike Davidson will work together on the best alignment on design teams.

We will set up time for an AMA in the coming days to answer questions. Let’s continue to stay focused on executing on our existing plans. Thank you for all that you do, and the impact that you have for our customers and partners.

Best,

Rajesh

Congrats Yusuf Mehdi & Mikhail Parakhin!

Forum discussion at X.