PATRICK T. FALLON
- Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman added nine direct reports, several from Google and DeepMind.
- Suleyman’s team is key to Microsoft’s consumer AI strategy, including Copilot and Bing.
- The changes show the fierce competition for AI talent.
Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman has added nine direct reports in the past year or so, according to internal organization charts viewed by Business Insider. Five of those previously worked for Google or DeepMind.
Last year, Microsoft appointed Suleyman — cofounder of AI pioneer DeepMind and former head of startup Inflection AI — as CEO of a new Microsoft AI division. The organization is responsible for consumer AI products such as Microsoft’s Copilot chatbot and the Bing search engine.
Business Insider wrote about Suleyman’s organizational chart a few months after the new unit came together. Now, an updated org chart shows how his team of 17 direct reports is shaping up, with nine new names and four who no longer appear.
The changes show the fierce competition for AI talent and how tech companies poaching from each other. Microsoft has a special recruiting team for Microsoft AI to help with competitive offers.
Who joined:
Amar Subramanya, CVP, AI MAI
Subramanya joined Microsoft in July from Google, where he was VP of engineering for generative AI product Gemini. In a LinkedIn post shortly after he joined, Subramanya wrote the culture at Microsoft was “refreshingly low ego yet bursting with ambition.”
“It reminds me of the best parts of a startup: fast-moving, collaborative, and deeply focused on building truly innovative, state-of-the-art foundation models to drive delightful AI-powered products such as Microsoft Copilot,” Subramanya wrote.
Dominic King, VP, Microsoft AI Health
King was previously the health lead at DeepMind back when Suleyman was running it. He joined Microsoft in December from UnitedHealth Group where he was a senior vice president of clinical solutions.
“Health is a critical use case for AI. Patients and the public continue to face multiple pain points on their path to better health,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing his new role. “We’re now at an inflection point where AI capabilities are already assisting with faster and more accurate diagnoses and helping people better navigate the complexity of modern healthcare.”
Jacob Andreou, CVP, Copilot Product
Andreou joined Microsoft this year. He was the senior vice president of product and growth at Snap from 2015 to 2023 and a partner at Greylock since 2023. Andreou appears to be behind Mico, Copilot’s new AI character inspired by Clippy, Microsoft Office’s often-hated animated paper clip.
Mark D’Arcy, CVP, Creative
D’Arcy joined Microsoft AI in June. He previously spent 10 years at Meta as chief creative officer and nearly seven years at Time Warner before that in roles including president and chief creative officer.
Meghan Perez, VP, General Manager
Perez has spent more than 25 years at Microsoft. Her LinkedIn profile suggests she’s in a vice president of the “Microsoft Edge Web and App Platform.” Microsoft Edge is the company’s web browser that Suleyman’s team is working to infuse with AI.
Sean Lyndersay, VP, Edge Product
Lyndersay has spent more than 26 years at Microsoft. He’s been in his current role since September 2024, which his LinkedIn profile describes as being responsible for product strategy and direction for Edge, the browser.
Tim Frank, CVP, Monetization Product
Frank joined Microsoft in January from Google, where he spent nearly 14 years most recently as senior director of product management for advertiser and customer engagement platforms. Frank describes his role in a LinkedIn post as “building the next generation of monetization for AI-first products.”
Trevor Callaghan, VP, Responsible AI
Callaghan is a former general counsel at DeepMind and a former legal director at Google.
Umesh Shankar, CVP, Data, Privacy, & Security
Suleyman hired Shankar in March to “lead a new privacy and security engineering effort focused on Copilot,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing the hiring.
Shankar previously spent nearly 19 years at Google, most recently as chief technology and distinguished engineer for Google Cloud Security. Suleyman wrote that Shankar was “involved in many foundational security and privacy projects” while at Google.
Who stayed:
Chris Daly, VP, Strategy & Business Operations
Daly joined Microsoft AI in May 2024 after spending about nine years in investment banking at Robey Warshaw. Daly’s LinkedIn indicates he lives in London. He appeared on Suleyman’s org chart last year with the same title.
Jordi Ribas, CVP, Bing
Ribas has been at Microsoft for more than 25 years. His LinkedIn profile lists his title as “CVP at Microsoft — Search & AI,” leading teams responsible for engineering, product, and growth in Copilot, Bing, and Microsoft Search in Bing for Enterprise. Ribas was listed on Suleyman’s org chart last year with the title of corporate vice president of “search and distribution,” but a Microsoft spokesman said he effectively has the same title.
Karén Simonyan, CVP & Chief Scientist, Microsoft AI
Simonyan is one of three Inflection cofounders. He was the chief scientist at that startup, and he’s taking on this role again at Microsoft AI.
Before Inflection, Simonyan was a principal research scientist at Google’s DeepMind AI lab.
Simonyan “is a renowned AI researcher and thought leader, who has led the development of some of the biggest AI breakthroughs over the past decade including AlphaZero,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote in an email to employees last year. Simonyan had the same title on last year’s org chart.
Kya Sainsbury-Carter, CVP, Microsoft Advertising
Sainsbury-Carter is a nearly 20-year veteran of Microsoft. She’s been in her current role since March 2023 leading the advertising team, which her LinkedIn says has more than $10 billion in annual revenue. Sainsbury-Carter had the same title on Suleyman’s org chart last year.
Mike Davidson, CVP, Design & UX Research
Davidson has worked for Microsoft since 2022. His previous roles include vice president of design at Twitter and founder of a news-media company called Newsvine that was acquired by NBCNews.com. He was also the director of media product development and design at the Walt Disney Internet Group. His role doesn’t appear to have changed since last year’s org chart.
Qi Zhang, CVP, Microsoft AI Asia
Zhang is based in Beijing and has been at Microsoft for 22 years. Zhang’s title appears to have changed since last year to CVP of Microsoft AI Asia from CVP of Microsoft AI ARPD (Microsoft’s Asia-Pacific Research and Development group), perhaps suggesting a broader scope. A Microsoft spokesperson said Zhang has always had a big scope.
Rob Cromwell, CVP, Copilot Engineering
Cromwell joined Microsoft along with Suleyman and Simonyan from Inflection AI, where he was the vice president of engineering. Cromwell had until then been at Inflection for about six months, having joined the company from the security-camera startup Verkada. His title has changed from VP of engineering to CVP of “Copilot engineering.” A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the promotion.
Rukmini Iyer, CVP, Monetization Engineering, MSN
Iyer has worked for Microsoft for more than 15 years. She has been a corporate vice president since 2020, when she was promoted from a distinguished engineer who led algorithms and infrastructure teams for Bing Ads. Her title on last year’s org chart was corporate vice president of “Microsoft ads engineering.” A Microsoft spokesperson said Iyer has always been a CVP, but the term “monetization” is newly being used on the team.
Who no longer appears on Suleyman’s org chart:
- Ali Akgun is a Microsoft veteran who was previously listed as corporate vice president of “Mobile Experiences and Platform.” Akgun’s LinkedIn now lists his job as “self-employed.”
- Michael Bhaskar, co-writer of Suleyman’s book “The Coming Wave,” no longer appears on the list of Suleyman’s direct reports. Bhaskar does still show up on separate internal tool that tracks other employees who often work with Suleyman.
- Gabor Hirschler was previously listed on Suleyman’s org chart as chief of staff. ” Hirschler is still on the team as a general manager of Business Operations & Employee Experiences, according to a Microsoft spokesperson.
- Rajesh Sundaram was previously listed on Suleyman’s org chart as with prestigious title of technical fellow. Sundaram’s LinkedIn profile still lists the same position. A Microsoft spokesperson said Sundaram is no longer at the company.
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