Former Nokia chief Stephen Elop is taking up a new role at Microsoft to lead the Xbox, Surface, entertainment and games businesses, after the Nokia acquisition concludes.
Microsoft will see a change of roles in its top executive category with the former boss of Nokia Stephen Elop replacing Julie Larson-Green, the former Windows executive who till recently led Microsoft's Devices and Studios Group. Elop's positioning in the new top ranks at Microsoft follows his candidacy to run the Redmond software company as the CEO, but Satya Nadella replaced CEO Steve Ballmer to take control of the company.
As for Larson-Green, according to a leaked memo to TechCrunch, she will be taking charge of the "My Life & Work" team in the applications and services group as the new chief experience officer. She served her role as a lead in the games business for just seven months and during her tenure Microsoft saw some of the most advanced introductions including the popular Xbox One video game console, the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 tablets, and the new Xbox music and video services.
In her farewell note to the internal team, Larson-Green said that she will continue in her role as the head of Devices & Studios Group until the Nokia acquisition completes, which is expected to happen this quarter. Then as a part of her new role in Applications and Services Group within Microsoft, Larson-Green will look after products including Bing, Office and Skype and report to Qi Lu, executive vice president who currently leads ASG.
"You are all in great hands with Stephen and already we've shared a lot with him and his LT from Nokia regarding all of the fantastic people, teams and products in DnS," Larson-Green wrote in her note, according to TechCrunch. "I also know many of you are looking forward to welcoming the Nokia team and working more closely with them."
Succeeding Larson-Green, Nokia's ex-boss Elop will now look after the company's Devices & Studios Group. Elop became a part of Microsoft's employment system after the software giant acquired the Finnish company in a $7.2 billion acquisition bid.
