Microsoft's New VP, Head of Research
posted Saturday Nov 24, 2012 by Scott Ertz
Shortly after the departure of Steven Sinofsky from Microsoft's Windows team and the promotion of two current executives into his former roles, Microsoft is continuing to beef up its executive team. Most likely in response to the surprisingly negative reviews from tech blogs (though the sentiment does not seem to be echoed by consumers themselves), Microsoft has brought in a new Vice President and head of Microsoft Research International, Dr. Jeannette Wing.
Joining the company from Carnegie Mellon University and the National Science Foundation, Dr. Wing will answer to Chief Research Officer Rick Rashid and will head up the international branches of Microsoft's research endeavors. She is a leader in formal methods, security and privacy, and will probably work primarily on related tasks, such as privacy policy and setting research for Skype, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and so.cl, particularly for other countries. This could help free up some brain power to work through some of the perceived cognitive friction in the new Windows Start screen.
Dr. Wing's new boss had some very nice things to say about his new executive,
Jeannette is a leading light in the computer science research community, providing strong leadership both at Carnegie Mellon and at NSF. I have long been impressed by both her profound commitment to world-class research and her service to the research community, and I look forward to working alongside her. It's a privilege to welcome Jeannette to Microsoft Research.
Rashid is not the only one excited about the move. Dr. Wing said,
I'm excited to join Microsoft Research, a world-class research organization in computing and related disciplines, and I appreciate this unique opportunity to lead its international labs. Microsoft Research has already had tremendous impact on the field of computing, on Microsoft's products and services, and on society, with potential yet to be unleashed. I am looking forward to working with the extraordinary talent at Microsoft Research, and I am especially honored to serve the international labs, each with its own character, strengths and distinct cultures.
It will be interesting to see how she is able to work through the problems of internationalizing some very localized products while maintaining proper, legal privacy. It sounds like Microsoft is working to prevent the problems Facebook is facing now.
