Microsoft Corp. is waving goodbye to another senior executive. This time around it’s Javier Soltero, the current head of its digital assistant Cortana, who’s leaving the firm.

The departure of Soltero (pictured) is just the latest in what seems to be an ongoing shakeup within Microsoft’s leadership team, following the exit of 20-year veteran Terry Myerson late last month. Soltero hadn’t been at Microsoft quite so long, having joined the company back in 2014 after the software giant acquired a mobile email startup called Acompli Inc. that he founded.

Following that deal, Soltero took over the reins at Microsoft’s Outlook Mobile team, helping design the Outlook mobile app. Eventually, he became head of the entire Outlook business unit before switching to the Office team. He became corporate vice president of Cortana in March 2018.

However, Soltero’s stint in charge of Cortana proved to be short-lived. Microsoft recently decided to alter its strategy for Cortana, which was once seen as a competitor to Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant but never gained the same level of popularity.

The company now seems to be focusing on making Cortana more of a productivity tool for Windows users, specializing in tasks such as integrating email and calendar apps with different Microsoft services. As part of this shift, responsibility for Cortana was recently moved from Microsoft’s AI and Research unit to its Experiences and Devices team, led by Executive Vice President Rajesh Jha. As a result, Soltero’s services are no longer required.

1/ Some news on the work front…

I’ve made the decision to leave Microsoft. The past 4 years have been an incredible experience. I’m humbled to have been a part of building something that 100M+ users depend on every day and grateful to have worked with some amazing people.

— Javier Soltero 🇵🇷 (@jsoltero) November 6, 2018

ZDNet, which broke the story, said Soltero will focus on “entrepreneurial activities” once he formally departs Microsoft later this year.

Soltero’s departure is mildly surprising because he was seen as something of a rising star at Microsoft, Business Insider reported. Still, Soltero’s time at Microsoft wasn’t without controversy either.

Back in 2015 he was critical of company employees, saying that Microsoft could find itself irrelevant if it didn’t take quick action to modernize Office and Outlook. The Wall Street Journal later quoted Soltero as saying he had received “hate mail” from employees for that criticism.

Microsoft gave him a polite farewell nonetheless, praising his work for the firm. “We are grateful for Javier’s impact and strategic leadership over the last four years at Microsoft, and wish him well as he returns to his entrepreneurial roots,” the company said in a statement. “Bringing together all of our work in natural language, intelligence and assistance — including Cortana — enables us to innovate faster for developers, partners and customers.”

Analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. said there was probably no need to over-analyze Soltero’s departure, saying it’s generally the case that executives who join from acquired companies often leave much earlier than those who’ve worked their way up through the company ranks.

“Microsoft has a deep bench and building assistants like Cortana requires a different skill from building traditional apps,” Mueller said. “Some people like it while others do not. I guess that was more a driver [for Soltero’s departure] as well as working on the next big thing on a smaller scale.”

Image: Wikipedia