Microsoft Head of HR Kathleen Hogan Moves Into New Executive Role

Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft’s chief people officer since 2015, has moved into a new position at the company, still reporting to CEO Satya Nadella, according to a company announcement on Wednesday.

“I’ve asked Kathleen Hogan to transition to a new role focused on defining our overarching corporate strategy and structure and leading our continuous transformation as a company. Kathleen will assume a new role as EVP, Office of Strategy and Transformation,” the Seattle-based tech giant’s CEO wrote.

Before taking over chief people officer duties, Hogan was not previously in HR. She was the corporate vice president of worldwide services for six years, and for six years before that she was COO of worldwide sales. She joined Microsoft from McKinsey, where she was a partner in Silicon Valley. Hogan also sits on the board of Alaska Airlines.

During Hogan’s CPO tenure, Microsoft grew from 118,000 employees to over 200,000 in 2022, and is estimated to be around 228,000 currently. The company conducted performance-based layoffs earlier this year, and in January 2023, announced layoffs that would impact more than 10,000 employees. Its stock price rose from under $50 at the start of 2015 to a 2024 high of $446 and, under Nadella’s leadership, is also a major player in the future of AI.

Microsoft made some large additions via acquisition during Hogan’s tenure as well, including the purchase of LinkedIn for $26 billion in 2016, Github for $7.5 billion in 2018, speech-recognition company Nuance for $16 billion in 2022 and the gaming company Activision Blizzard for $69 billion in a deal completed in 2023. In addition to navigating these transitions and the pandemic, Hogan is credited with leading a cultural transformation by the company’s CEO.

Nadella added that Hogan’s background and experience makes her “uniquely suited to lead this work as we accelerate our pace of change across our people, processes, and portfolio. Kathleen will work across the SLT as we chart this next phase of our transformation, which requires both interpreting the outside and redefining the inside.”

In the same note, Nadella announced the appointment of Amy Coleman into the chief people officer role, reporting to him. After a stint as CHRO at Medio Systems, Coleman rejoined Microsoft in 2009 as an HR director over mergers and acquisitions. She advanced through a variety of HR leadership roles including general manager for strategy, technology and corporate functions before becoming the head of HR.

“[Coleman] has been a trusted advisor to both Kathleen and to me as she orchestrated many cross-company workstreams as we evolved our culture, improved our employee engagement model, established our employee relations team, and drove enterprise crisis response for our people,” Nadella wrote. “I’m confident in the perspective, expertise, and thoughtful approach she’ll bring as we navigate the next phase of our journey.”