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Microsoft’s Panos Panay who has been at the forefront of the Surface hardware line since his entire life and the evolution of Windows since 2020, is leaving the company, according to a press release issued through Microsoft. Panay’s roles in the Surface and Windows groups will be taken over through Yusuf Mehdi, director of customer marketing, who over the past year has been the face of most of the company’s big announcements, such as generative AI.
“Thank you, Panos, for your influence on our products, culture, company and industry over the past two decades. I am grateful for his leadership, support and all he has done for Microsoft and our consumers and partners,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote in a message shared with the press: “We remain a corporation and are convinced of our strategy, and Yusuf Mehdi will lead our Windows and Surface business and products externally.
If you’ve ever seen an ad for the Microsoft Surface, know Panay for his excitement, his moving eyes, and colorful T-shirts, and also for how he seemed to sincerely appreciate the opportunity to tell you about the processors that would be used. Panay joined Microsoft in 2004 and was recently promoted to the company’s leadership team in 2021.
Microsoft said reshuffling its leadership team would have no short-term effect on any of its existing products, adding Surface and the company’s combined hardware efforts.
While Mehdi “will take on the responsibility of leading the Windows and Surface business with our OEMs and retail partners,” writes Rajesh Jha, Microsoft’s executive vice president, other Microsoft veterans will also step in to ensure the company’s hardware and software business works. Pavan Davuluri will be guilty of a team that “builds silicon, systems and devices spanning Windows, the consumer and the cloud for global AI” and also, more specifically, will be guilty of “planning and managing Windows versions”. Mikhail Parakhin will lead a new “Web and Windows experiences team” that will “create reports that combine Web and Windows for global AI. “
The timing of Panay’s departure is unclear; his post on X, the site most people call Twitter, suggests he leaves immediately, though Jha’s press release says Panay is helping the group transition to its new direction. It’s unclear if Panay will be up to the task for Microsoft’s upcoming Surface hardware event. which is expected to take a position later this week, on September 21.
Mehdi also has a long history with Microsoft, starting in 1992 with the release of Windows 3. 1 and 95 before leading the marketing of the first (and incredibly influential) versions of Internet Explorer. To the point that Panay’s departure will boost and accentuate the momentum to integrate new AI-powered features into Windows 11 and long-term releases, the AI push lately results as a company-wide mandate that goes beyond the barriers of any single leader.
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