Microsoft Names India-Born Pavan Davuluri As Its New Windows And Surface Chief

Microsoft has named IIT Madras graduate Pavan Davuluri as its new Windows and Surface chief, marking the latest additions to the list of Indians in leadership roles at global technology companies.

In his new role, Davuluri will report directly to Rajesh Jha, Microsoft’s head of experiences and devices. 

As per a memo reviewed by The Verge, Jha said that Microsoft is now bringing together its Windows and devices teams once more. “This will enable us to take a holistic approach to building silicon, systems, experiences, and devices that span Windows client and cloud for this AI era,” The Verge reported.

Davuluri has been with Microsoft for 23 years and played a pivotal role in the company’s collaboration with Qualcomm and AMD to develop custom Surface processors.

This move comes a year after Microsoft divided its Windows and Surface groups, following the departure of Panos Panay to Amazon. Last year, Davuluri led the Surface silicon and devices segment, while Mikhail Parakhin assumed responsibility for Windows and web experiences.

Davuluri joins a prominent group of Indian Americans leading Silicon Valley’s tech giants. Some of the big names include Sundar Pichai, an IIT alumnus from Madurai, who heads Google’s parent company, Alphabet. Satya Nadella has been the CEO of Microsoft since 2014. Other prominent Indian-origin CEOs in the global tech industry include Ravi Kumar S of Cognizant, Arvind Krishna of IBM, Nikesh Arora of Palo Alto Networks, Neal Mohan of YouTube, and Shantanu Narayen of Adobe.

Meanwhile, the company plans to skill and certify 75,000 women developers in India in 2024 in cloud, AI, and digital technology sectors. The tech major is undertaking this initiative as a part of the expansion of its ‘Code; Without Barriers’ programme in India.