Microsoft Announces New Security and Engineering Quality Roles

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that his company is creating two new Executive Vice President roles, one for Security and one for Quality. Both have been assigned to long-time Microsoft veterans who will report directly to Nadella.

“I am excited to share a couple [of] updates in two of our core priorities: security and quality,” Mr. Nadella writes in a message to employees that the company also made public. “Hayete Gallot is rejoining Microsoft as Executive Vice President, Security, reporting to me. I’ve also asked Charlie Bell to take on a new role focused on engineering quality, reporting to me.”

Ms. Gallot worked for Microsoft for 16 years, most recently in late 2024 as a Corporate Vice President of Commercial Solutions. She left the software giant at that time to join Google as the President of Google Cloud Customer Experience, but she’s now back at Microsoft and will assume the role of Executive Vice President of Security.

As Nadella notes, Gallot also played “multiple critical roles in building two of [Microsoft’s] biggest franchises, Windows and Office,” during her previous stint at the company. Now, all of Microsoft’s security teams will report to her, and Hayete and her team will “now be accountable for [Microsoft’s] security product rhythms.” Tied to this, Ales Holecek will take on a new role as Chief Architect for Security and report to Hayete.

As for Mr. Bell, he’s been leading Microsoft’s security efforts for over four years after having been a Senior Vice President of Amazon Web Services and a nearly 24-year (!) Amazon veteran. As Microsoft’s new Executive Vice President of Engineering, Bell will report directly to Nadella and serve as an advisor to the CEO. Mr. Nadella says that he and Bell have been planning this transition “for a long time.”

“Charlie built our Security, Compliance, Identity, and Management organization and helped rally the company behind the Secure Future Initiative,” Nadella explains. “And we’re fortunate to have his continued focus and leadership on another one of our top priorities. With our Quality Excellence Initiative, we have increased accountability and accelerated progress against our engineering objectives to ensure we always deliver durable, high quality-experiences at global scale. And Charlie will partner closely with Scott Guthrie and Mala Anand on this work.”