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Microsoft shakes up Windows marketing unit

Longtime veteran Bill Veghte will head a new Windows Business Group, overseeing marketing and product management for the OS.

Ina Fried Former Staff writer, CNET News
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley.
Ina Fried
2 min read
With Windows Vista out the door, Microsoft is reshuffling the leadership of the business side of its Windows unit.

A new Windows Business Group will be headed by Bill Veghte, a 17-year Microsoft veteran who has been serving as corporate vice president overseeing North American sales. Windows development remains under Steven Sinofsky, with both Sinofsky and Veghte reporting to Kevin Johnson, who leads the unit that oversees both Windows and Windows Live.

The move, along with several other changes in the Windows marketing and product management ranks, is the latest in an ongoing restructuring at Microsoft that began in September 2005, with the company reordering itself from five business units to three and announcing the retirement of Jim Allchin. Allchin retired at the end of January.

Mike Sievert, who had been heading product marketing and product management, will now focus solely on the marketing side, while Mike Nash will take over product management. Sievert, who joined Microsoft from AT&T Wireless in 2005, and Nash, who headed Microsoft's security business unit until a recent sabbatical, will both report to Veghte. Brad Goldberg, who has been general manager of product management for Windows, is shifting to another unspecified role outside of the Windows unit but within Kevin Johnson's Platform and Services Division.

Also reporting to Veghte are Will Poole, who is heading Windows' market expansion efforts for emerging markets and new types of PCs, and Joe Peterson, who is leading the unit charged with online distribution and the Windows Genuine advantage antipiracy effort.

The latest organizational changes come less than a month after Windows Vista hit store shelves.