Alex Kipman, a Microsoft technical partner, led the company’s HoloLens mixed reality team. (Archive photo)
Microsoft is splitting its HoloLens mixed-reality group and separating from Alex Kipman, the group’s leader who was the subject of a recent Insider story that cited him as an example of “toxic” behavior within the ‘company.
The restructuring was announced in an internal email on Tuesday evening, moving the company’s mixed reality hardware group to the Windows & Devices organization and its mixed reality presence and collaboration group to the organization. Microsoft Teams in the company experiences and devices division.
Scott Guthrie, head of Microsoft’s Cloud & AI group, said in the email that the changes “will further align and accelerate our global Metaverse efforts as a company this coming fiscal year.”
Towards the end of the email, after describing the organizational changes, Guthrie wrote: “Over the past few months, Alex Kipman and I have been talking about the team’s path to follow. We’ve mutually decided it’s time to leave the company to look for other opportunities “.
Guthrie added: “I appreciate Alex’s tremendous vision over the years and everything he has done to advance our Metaverse offerings. Alex is committed to helping teams with the transition process over the next few years. two months and to guarantee success before continuing what will be for him “.
Alex Kipman presents the original HoloLens at Microsoft in 2015. (GeekWire / Todd Bishop archive photo)
The May 25 Insider story by journalist Ashley Stewart began with an anecdote depicting Kipman, at a meeting at Microsoft with other employees, seeing what an employee later described on the site as VR pornography.
The report described a pattern of alleged misconduct by Kipman toward women in the company, including unwanted touching, as an example of misbehavior by Microsoft executives, saying he got away with it despite promises by CEO Satya Nadella and other senior executives to institute cultural change. .
Microsoft did not comment on the report details, and GeekWire did not independently verify it. The company often makes organizational changes in conjunction with July 1 of the start of its fiscal year.
Kipman joined Microsoft in 2001. He holds a technical fellowship and is known for inventing products such as the HoloLens mixed reality headset and the Kinect motion controller for Xbox.
Here is the full text of Guthrie’s email, obtained by GeekWire.
Today I am announcing some organizational changes within Cloud + AI.
The mixed reality team offers augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) products and solutions, such as HoloLens, IVAS, and our Microsoft Mesh service, which are key elements of Microsoft’s global Metaverse work.
The team has come a long way with our mixed reality work last year and reached two critical milestones last month:
• The U.S. military officially approved our work with the U.S. military and the IVAS (Integrated Visual Augmentation System) project to build a next-generation solution where each soldier will use a mixed-reality headset, it was approved officially by the U.S. military to enter the operational test (OT) stage. . This is a great milestone for the team and the culmination of years of hard work.
• At the Davos World Economic Forum, Microsoft and our partner Accenture presented an immersive experience created with our new Microsoft Mesh SDK that allows end users to meet in a trusted metavers space and collaborate on global issues such as now sustainability. The experience was very well received with great feedback from attendees, and we now have high demand from customers who want to create similar experiences.
These are important milestones on our path to building even richer mixed-reality hardware devices, as well as the underlying software collaboration platform to enable more immersive Metaverse experiences.
Accelerating and aligning Microsoft’s work on Metaverse in the future
Today we are making some organizational changes that will further align and accelerate our overall Metaverse efforts as a company this coming fiscal year.
Mixed reality hardware will join the Windows + Devices organization
Grace Hwang, Ruben Caballero, Scott Evans, Ashraf Michail, David Marra and the leading mixed reality hardware teams are responsible for designing and delivering transformer mixed reality hardware products. These include our HoloLens and IVAS projects.
With today’s announcement, they will join the Windows + Devices (W + D) organization under Panos Panay. This move will integrate our mixed-reality hardware teams as part of Microsoft’s broader end-user device hardware organization. Both HoloLens and IVAS are created with Windows, and this move further aligns the efforts of our client platform.
Mixed reality presence and collaboration teams will join the Teams organization
Carlos Aguilar, Miguel Susffalich, Nikhil Subramanian and the leading teams are responsible for delivering the next generation of mixed reality presence and collaboration services, including our new Microsoft Mesh offering.
With today’s announcement, they will be joining the Teams organization within the Experiences + Devices division under Jeff Teper. This move will further strengthen and integrate Microsoft’s collaborative efforts in the future. Creating engaging Metaverse collaboration experiences, especially on computers, is critical, and the Microsoft Mesh SDK is increasingly becoming an integral part of delivering it.
Alex Kipman to leave the company and look for other opportunities
For the past few months, Alex Kipman and I have been talking about the team’s way forward. We have mutually decided that this is the right time for you to leave the company to look for other opportunities. I am grateful for the great vision that Alex has provided to Microsoft over the years and all that he has done to advance our Metaverse offerings. Alex is committed to helping the teams with the transition process over the next two months and to ensuring success before pursuing what will be for him.
Closing
I deeply appreciate the important contributions that the Mixed Reality team has made in recent years. The work they are offering will allow for amazing products and rich applications that will change the way we communicate, work and learn in the future.
These changes are effective immediately and will accelerate business growth and create leadership capacity. I look forward to the progress of the new combined teams over the next year.
Thanks,
Scott