• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, October 27, 2023

Microsoft on Thursday said CMO Chris Capossela will leave the company after 32 years as the company enters a "new era" of artificial intelligence.

Capossela became Microsoft CMO in April 2011, and moved into his role as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer in March 2014.

Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft, shared the news in a blog post, explaining that the two had planned Capossela’s succession for some time. 

“As this new era of AI is upon us, we’ve decided this is the right time to put that plan into action,” Nadella wrote. 

The many positions Capossela held at Microsoft throughout his career include speech assistant to Bill Gates, program manager of Microsoft Access, Product manager of desktop database products, and marketing manager of the windows seminar team.

With Capossela’s departure -- which is effective immediately -- Takeshi Numoto stepped into the role of executive vice president and CMO, reporting to Nadella.

Numoto supported Microsoft’s commercial and cloud businesses for years. The cloud business in Q3 2023 contributed revenue of $23.4 billion, up 32% year-over-year.

Capossela shared the news on LinkedIn, writing that “Microsoft has literally opened the world to me, allowing me to travel from Accra to Zagreb, while working on every product from Azure to Xbox.”

“The memories of my time at the company will always remain dear to me,” he wrote. “And I'm excited for the impact Takeshi, Yusuf [Mehdi] and the marketing team will have in empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”

Mehdi will serve as the champion of end-user experiences and build on his work launching several AI-powered services to lead Microsoft Copilot product marketing. He will also continue to lead Search, Ad, & News and Devices & Creativity Customer Solution Areas (CSAs).

The departure follows the recent exit of Panos Panay, Microsoft’s chief product officer, who joined Amazon to lead the Devices & Services business.