Javier Soltero leaves Microsoft

Javier Soltero, Microsoft's corporate vice president in charge of the virtual digital assistant Cortana is leaving the company according to a report. Soltero was recognized as a rising star within Microsoft, by CEO Satya Nadella during his first year in office.

According to the report, Soltero's departure was announced to employees this week with his last day likely to be in December. It's not clear what he plans to do next. Soltero himself tweeted about his departure confirming the report.

2/ I am deeply optimistic that Microsoft will continue to grow by building great products for people around the world. I'm grateful to have learned so much about what it really takes to have massive scale success & look forward to putting these lessons to work on something new.

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

Soltero, a former VMware executive, got to Microsoft in 2014 when the company acquired email app start-up Acompli for $200 million. In the following months, Soltero was involved in bringing a modern version of its Outlook email and calendar app to Android and iOS, while drawing on some features of the Acompli app, like its Focused Inbox that prioritized certain email messages. Outlook on mobile has gone on to become one of the best email apps in the market today.

Soltero took charge of Cortana in March. While Microsoft's Cortana is offered in various devices including Windows 10 computers, mobile phones, tablets, and smart speakers, it remains less popular than the Google Assistant, Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa. Earlier this year Microsoft said Cortana had more than 150 million users. Siri, meanwhile, has more than 500 million active users.


source - ZDNet | CNBC