Microsoft Losing Two Top Talents
Jeff Raikes, one of the Microsoft execs with the most years under his belt
(and one of the nicest business leaders you'll ever meet), is
retiring
this fall.
Originally from Apple, Raikes has done nearly everything in his 27-some years
at Microsoft. Most recently, Raikes drove the Office System business, especially
the collaboration tools that run on top of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Whenever a big-time executives leaves, rumors fly about whether they were forced
out. I don't sit in on Microsoft's board meetings, but I'd venture to guess
that the decision was all Raikes'. First, he's not leaving for nine months.
Second, Raikes recently took the lead in launching Microsoft's Unified Communications
line, which is off to a good start. And third, Raikes, part owner of the Seattle
Mariners, is pretty much free to do whatever he wants!
Meanwhile, the man who drove Microsoft's acquisitions for the last two years
is retiring
next month. Bruce Jaffe, who helped Microsoft spend billions buying everything
from Desktop Standard to aQuantive, started with Microsoft 12 years ago in the
corporate strategy group.
Posted by Doug Barney on January 14, 2008