As the AI Battle Rages, Yusuf Mehdi Becomes the Latest Microsoft Veteran to Walk

In October of last year, Microsoft chief commercial officer Judson Althoff took the CEO reins to allow Satya Nadella to focus his attention on AI. Speaking with Alex Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner on the MD Meets podcast in December, Nadella revealed that he was studying the playbooks of tech startups, and called Microsoft’s corporate bulk a “massive disadvantage.”

In April, Microsoft announced the first voluntary buyout plan in its 51-year history, offering a retirement program to anyone at the senior director level and to rank-and-file employees whose age and years of service tally to 70 or greater.

Mehdi joined Microsoft in January 1992, directing product management for Internet Explorer and Windows. At the time, the operating system—initially rolled out as a graphical user interface for MS-DOS—was just seven years old. After leading the launch of Internet Explorer 1.0 in 1995, Mehdi helped build it into the internet’s leading browser before the ascendancy of Google. 

Mehdi also led the introduction of the Xbox One console and, starting in 2015, oversaw the global marketing efforts for the entire Windows family—software, apps, games, and devices. 

“I’ve had the privilege of being a part of some of the most consequential shifts in technology,” Mehdi stated on LinkedIn, “from the rise of Windows and the early Internet, to search, gaming, devices, and now one of the most profound platform transitions yet: AI.”