Microsoft has hired Carolina Dybeck Happe, a former General Electric (GE) CFO, as its first COO in eight years.
Dybeck Happe is joining Microsoft as its new Chief Operations Officer and Executive Vice President. She will be part of the tech giant’s senior leadership team and report directly to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Dybeck Happe is also Microsoft’s first COO since Kevin Turner departed in 2016, albeit as a Chief Operations Officer rather than the Chief Operating Officer position Turner held.
“I’ve come to admire Carolina through her work as a global business leader, including most recently her role in leading GE’s historic turnaround,” Nadella wrote in an accompanying blog announcing the news.
She is recognised for her ability to drive transformational change at scale while delivering improved customer experiences and faster time to value. Carolina will partner with the SLT to help us drive continuous business process improvement across all our organisations and accelerate our company-wide AI transformation, increasing value to customers and partners.”
Nadella added that as part of this transition, the Commerce and Ecosystems business arm in Cloud and AI, the Microsoft Digital arm in Experiences and Devices, and the Microsoft Business Operations arm in Finance will report to Dybeck Happe.
Nadella suggests this appointment underscores Microsoft’s dedication to maintaining cohesion within the company, especially as a significant portion of its operations now focus on AI.
More Information on Happe
Dybeck Happe was GE’s Senior Vice President and CFO from March 2020 until September 2023.
She transitioned to GE from Maersk, where she served as the finance chief. Prior to that, she dedicated nearly 17 years to the Swedish lock company Assa Abloy, eventually rising to the positions of chief financial officer and deputy CEO.
Dybeck Happe was credited with playing a critical role in boosting GE’s financial performance and delivering on the business’s spin-off strategy. Her appointment at Microsoft follows the recent trading debut of GE’s aviation and energy divisions, GE Aerospace and GE Vernova, on the New York Stock Exchange in April after stepping down from the CFO role. GE had previously announced its intention to split into three separate companies in 2021.
“I’m excited to share that I am taking on a new role at Microsoft as EVP and Chief Operations Officer,” Dybeck Happe said on LinkedIn. “When I first spoke with Satya Nadella about Microsoft’s AI transformation, I immediately saw the incredible opportunity for AI to benefit every aspect of its business as a catalyst for innovation, growth, and value creation.”
“I could not be more thrilled to bring my lifelong passion for technology and my global experience in partnering to deliver transformation at scale to Microsoft.”
Microsoft’s Rebuilding Around AI
In addition to its $13 billion investment in OpenAI and significant investments in its Copilot AI products, Microsoft’s corporate restructuring has been designed to support its doubling down on AI as the cornerstone of its long-term strategy.
In March, Mustafa Suleyman took the helm as Microsoft AI’s CEO.
Suleyman now oversees Microsoft’s consumer and business AI products and services, including Copilot, Bing, and Edge. As EVP, Suleyman joins Microsoft’s senior leadership team and reports directly to Nadella.
In addition to hiring Suleyman, Microsoft has recruited several employees from Inflection AI, including Reid Hoffman and co-founder Karén Simonyan. Nadella praised Simonyan as “a renowned AI researcher and thought leader” who will take on the role of chief scientist for Microsoft AI.
Additionally, in April, Microsoft hired former Meta executive Jason Taylor for its AI supercomputing team.
Taylor assumed the role of Corporate Vice President and Deputy CEO at Microsoft and will report to Kevin Scott, Microsoft CTO.
