News

Veghte Quitting Windows VP Position

Bill Veghte is stepping down as senior vice president for Windows Business.

Veghte will leave Microsoft at the end of this month after 20 years of service at various roles at Microsoft. In his current position, Veghte had been engaged in spearheading the advertising and marketing efforts for the Windows 7 team, according to his Microsoft bio. He also planned sales and marketing efforts for Internet Explorer and Windows Live products, including Messenger and Hotmail.

In July 2009, Veghte's position was left somewhat in limbo after Steven Sinofsky was promoted to president of the Windows Division. Microsoft's announcement at that time stated that Tami Reller, corporate vice president and CFO for Windows and Windows Live, would take over Windows marketing functions while Veghte would move into an unspecified leadership position.

Apparently, Veghte had been looking for a new job at Microsoft but decided to leave after meeting with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, according to a story by veteran Microsoft watcher Mary-Jo Foley. A letter from Ballmer to Microsoft executives indicated that Veghte was looking for something different.

"Bill has indicated a desire to run a business in a more end-to-end fashion and continue to explore new areas in the broad technology, communications and services sectors," Ballmer wrote in the letter.

In his 20 years at Microsoft, Veghte was involved with a number of products, including Office, Windows CE, Windows Server 2003 and Small Business Server 2003, among others.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

Featured

  • An image of planes flying around a globe

    2025 Microsoft Conference Calendar: For Partners, IT Pros and Developers

    Here's your guide to all the IT training sessions, partner meet-ups and annual Microsoft conferences you won't want to miss.

  • Notebook

    Microsoft Centers AI, Security and Partner Dogfooding at MCAPS

    Microsoft's second annual MCAPS for Partners event took place Tuesday, delivering a volley of updates and directives for its partners for fiscal 2026.

  • Microsoft Layoffs: AI Is the Obvious Elephant in the Room

    As Microsoft doubles down on an $80 billion bet on AI this fiscal year, its workforce reductions are drawing scrutiny over whether AI's ascent is quietly reshaping its human capital strategy, even as official messaging avoids drawing a direct line.

  • Microsoft CSPs To Start Selling Windows 10 ESU this Fall

    Organizations that want to extend the life of their Windows 10 PCs can begin buying extension plans from Microsoft's Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners on Sept. 1.