News

Microsoft's Dynamics CRM Chief Goes to Salesforce.com

• By Gladys Rama
• November 17, 2015

Bob Stutz, who has guided Microsoft's Dynamics CRM team for the last three years as corporate vice president, has left the company.

Reports from various media outlets indicate that Stutz left Microsoft to join Salesforce.com, a rival of Microsoft in the CRM space as well as a strategic partner, as its chief analytics officer. Salesforce.com launched Salesforce Analytics Cloud, its first foray into the enterprise-grade analytics market, a little over a year ago.

Stutz had been with Microsoft since April 2012 and had overseen several key acquisitions aimed at bolstering Dynamics CRM's customer service capabilities, including those of Parature and MarketingPilot. Microsoft launched Dynamics CRM 2013 and Dynamics CRM 2015, as well as their cloud-based counterparts, under Stutz's watch. His departure comes just as Microsoft prepares to release Dynamics CRM 2016 sometime this quarter.

Replacing Stutz is Jujhar Singh, who assumed his new role on Monday, according to an internal Microsoft memo published by MSDynamicsWorld, which first broke the news. According to the memo, which is attributed to Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise Group, Singh now heads the CRM Business Applications Team. Singh reports directly to Guthrie.

"Jujhar has been a critical driver of innovation in the CRM business in his previous role as our Dynamics CRM product champion leading product management and strategic direction, and has driven our vision for intelligent customer engagement," Guthrie wrote in the memo.

A Microsoft spokesperson elaborated that Singh's previous responsibilities included product strategy and working with acquired companies to integrate them into the Dynamics CRM team.

Microsoft did not say who, if anyone, will fill Singh's previous role. "We are excited about the new leadership and will share any additional changes to the CRM team structure at a future date," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also said that Stutz's departure is not part of another companywide reorg.

"With the Dynamics CRM 2016 release cycle coming to a close, Bob Stutz has made the decision to leave Microsoft to pursue new opportunities," Guthrie wrote. "Bob has done a great job leading the Dynamics CRM organization over the last 3.5 years, and I'd like to thank him for his leadership in transforming Dynamics CRM from an industry challenger to a clear leader in the CRM space."