Microsoft Is Doubling Down On AI, Security: Here Are Some Of Its Recent Hires

The new hires come as Microsoft continues to assert leadership in the growing AI space while furthering efforts to increase the security of its products.

A Microsoft artificial intelligence CEO, a CTO of worldwide defense and intelligence, and a corporate vice president of core data services are among the most consequential hires at Microsoft so far this year.

The new hires come as Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft continues to assert leadership in the growing AI space while furthering efforts to increase the security of its products and innovating around products that protect users from threat actors.

Some of these hires have come from Microsoft’s rivals across the tech landscape, including cloud rival Amazon Web Services and generative AI rival Google.

Microsoft Hires In 2024

The hiring comes as multiple tech vendors cut head count amid high inflation in the U.S. and as they reallocate resources to go after the emerging AI market, with recent deep cuts announced from companies including Ciscoand Five9.

In August, research firm IDC said in a report that the global AI market stands at nearly $235 billion. Projections show it could hit more than $631 billion by 2028.

Read on for some of the biggest hires Microsoft has made so far in 2024.

Mustafa Suleyman

Microsoft brought on Suleyman in March as executive vice president and CEO of the newly formed Microsoft AI organization.

Suleyman came to the tech giant after about two years as CEO of Inflection AI, which he co-founded in 2022, according to his LinkedIn account.

He previously co-founded DeepMind in 2010, sold the company to Google in 2014 and left Google in 2022 to co-found Inflection.

Tim Hall

In April, Hall became corporate vice president of core data center services at Microsoft, leaving a 13-plus-year career with Amazon Web Services and its parent, Amazon.com.

Hall left AWS with the title of vice president of Americas infrastructure operations, according to his LinkedIn account.

He started with Amazon in 2011 as a senior outbound operations manager, according to his LinkedIn account. His resume includes more than a year with Priority Plastics as COO and about 13 years with General Motors, leaving in 2009 with the title of assistant plant manager.

Mike Carter

Carter joined Microsoft in February, taking on the role of vice president of “modern work” customer success.

In this role, Carter empowers “customers to innovate, grow and unlock tangible business benefits from their Modern Work investments with Microsoft” and leads “a robust team of 230, spearheading a division comprising nearly 1,100 Customer Success Engineers and Architects,” accordingto his LinkedIn account.

Carter came to Microsoft after about two years with Splunk, where he held the role of senior vice president of global customer success management and renewals strategy and operations.

His resume includes about two years with Cisco, leaving in 2022 with the title of vice president of customer experience for the global enterprise segment, and about 31 years with Dell Technologies.

Carter left Dell in 2020 with the title of vice president of global customer success for the Secureworks segment, according to his LinkedIn account.

Allison Weimer

Weimer became CTO of worldwide defense and intelligence at Microsoft in April.

Weimer came to the vendor after more than two years with NBCUniversal, according to her LinkedIn account. She left NBCUniversal with the title of vice president of corporate technology.

Her resume includes about three years with Henkels & McCoy, leaving the energy and communications company in 2021 as CIO and vice president of information.

Weimer capped off a 14-plus-year career with Leidos and Lockheed Martin in 2017 with the title of vice president of Homeland Security technology solutions. In 2016, Leidos merged with Lockheed’s $4.7 billion government IT business.

Michael Srihari

Srihari became corporate vice president of CISO operations at Microsoft in February.

In this role, he will work with the vendor’s global CISO, Igor Tsyganskiy, “and the amazing team at Microsoft to secure our company, our partners, and our customers across the world,” Srihari wrote in a LinkedIn post.

Srihari joined the tech giant after about 18 years with asset management firm Bridgewater Associates, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the company with the title of deputy CTO.

Jason Taylor

Microsoft hired Taylor in April as corporate vice president and deputy CTO of AI infrastructure.

He will work on “AI supercomputing efforts” and work with Microsoft-backed OpenAI on building “the next set of systems that will push the frontier of AI forward for us all,” according to a LinkedIn post.

Taylor joined the vendor after more than 13 years with Facebook and parent company Meta, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the company with the title of vice president of infrastructure.

Vassili Patrikis

Microsoft hired Patrikis as its new chief AI officer in June.

Patrikis joined the vendor after about seven years with Amazon, according to his LinkedIn account. He left Amazon with the title of principal AI, machine learning and data engineer for Amazon Web Services National Security (NatSec).

His resume includes about three years with Accenture. He left the solution provider in 2017 with the title of director of big data and research and development innovation labs architect.

Vik Singh

Singh returned to Microsoft in January, taking on the corporate vice president title and working in the areas of AI and enterprise applications, according to his LinkedIn account.

Singh previously worked as a researcher at Microsoft for about two years, leaving in 2006.

In 2010, he co-founded Infer, a predictive sales and marketing platform, leading the company as CEO until October, according to his LinkedIn account. Ignite Technologies acquired Infer in 2017.

Jeana Jorgensen

Jorgensen returned to Microsoft in June as corporate vice president of worldwide learning.

She previously worked at Google for about three years, leaving in 2023 with the title of senior director of Google Cloud product and developer marketing, according to her LinkedIn account.

In this role, she was “responsible for infrastructure and app modernization product marketing, industry perceptions, sustainability, and developer marketing and community” and designed and led the vendor’s “developer strategy, community program and subscription model,” among other responsibilities.

She previously worked at Microsoft for about 19 years, leaving in 2020 as a general manager. During her time with Microsoft, she “led product management and business planning for all commercial online distribution (marketplaces, partner tooling) with a team of over 300 members and a multimillion-dollar budget,” according to her LinkedIn account.

She also “rebuilt the companywide startup program, tripling the number of new applicants and created billions of dollars in co-sell opportunities for early stage companies, originated and led Marketplace Rewards to provide a programmatic GTM motion for all online publishers” and “led division wide DEI and company-wide training initiatives, more than doubling engagement in the first year.”

Nitasha Chopra

In February, Microsoft hired Chopra as vice president and COO of business applications, according to her LinkedIn account.

In a LinkedIn post, Chopra said that she would be “diving into AI innovation with Microsoft's cutting-edge products and technologies to deliver exceptional customer value and impact.”

Chopra came to the vendor after about 19 years with Intel. She left Intel with the title of senior director of the product execution office.

Marvin Theimer

In July, Theimer returned to Microsoft, accepting a role as corporate vice president and technical architect, according to his LinkedIn account.

Themeir came to Microsoft after about two years with Stripe, where he served as staff engineer and tech lead.

He previously worked at Microsoft for about eight years, leaving in 2006 with the title of software architect, according to his LinkedIn account.

Themeir worked at Amazon.com and Amazon Web Services for more than 14 years combined, most recently leaving in 2022 with the title of distinguished engineer.

A biography of Theimer on the Computing Research Association’s website said that he “received a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University in 1986” and spent 17 years “as a researcher working at IBM’s Almaden Research Center, Xerox PARC, and Microsoft Research on topics including distributed operating systems, ubiquitous computing, weakly-consistent replicated systems, peer-to-peer file systems, and global-scale peer-to-peer event notification systems.”

At Amazon, Theimer “worked on a variety of projects, ranging from EC2’s Virtual Private Cloud, to various distributed coordination services, to the Kinesis streaming data processing platform.” as well as the AWS “Commerce Platform and Identity-and-Access-Management teams,” according to the biography.

A biography of Theimer on Anyscale’s website says that at Amazon he focused on life sciences and health care during his recent AWS tenure.