Microsoft Taps Two New Information Worker VPs

Tuesday, Joe Eschbach, former vice president of ePaper Solutions at Adobe Systems, was named the new vice president of the company's growing information worker product management group. And Peter Rinearson was tapped as vice president of new markets.

A Microsoft spokesman confirmed both appointments, which were announced internally on Tuesday, but not publicly disclosed.

"They're just building up the bench strength" of that group, the spokesman said.

Rinearson, along with former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold, helped write Microsoft chairman Bill Gates' book The Road Ahead in 1996. Rinearson also wrote several technical books on Microsoft Word published by Microsoft Press.

The Information Worker Unit, previously known as the Knowledge Worker Unit, is under the purview of company group vice president Jeff Raikes, a 20-year Microsoft veteran. The group is tasked with coming up with ways for software to help users find, access and use information spread throughout their organizations.

Microsoft sources said the group, some of whom will be based in Seattle, must figure out how to better package and offer features and functions now spread throughout the Microsoft product portfolio. The group's charter is to make Microsoft's popular Office desktop application suite, even handier for people see related story.