Microsoft Chief Product Officer Panos Panay has resigned

Citing multiple media outlets, Panos Panay, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer, has tendered his resignation from Microsoft as of yesterday. An internal memo from Rajesh Jha, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of Experiences and Devices, reveals that after an illustrious tenure of nearly two decades, Panos Panay has chosen to part ways with the company. Panay concurrently made his departure public on Platform X.

Panay first graced Microsoft with his presence in 2004. He was the mastermind behind the Surface product line and oversaw Microsoft’s hardware ventures. By 2018, he ascended to the role of Chief Product Officer, steering the development of Windows 11. Come 2021, he was elevated to the position of Executive Vice President, cementing his place in Microsoft’s upper echelons, empowered to offer direct counsel to CEO Satya Nadella.

Panos Panay

Over the past several years, an impassioned Panay has graced numerous launch events, presenting Microsoft’s innovative products. Several iconic Surface devices were unveiled under his stewardship, making him a familiar face to the Microsoft aficionado community.

Reports suggest that Panay’s next port of call is set to be tech behemoth Amazon. He is poised to succeed Dave Limp, Amazon’s hardware chief set to retire at the close of 2023, primarily overseeing the Alexa voice assistant and the Echo smart speaker division.

Microsoft has concurrently confirmed to both Windows Central and The Verge that Panos Panay will be conspicuously absent from Microsoft’s event scheduled for September 21st. The event is anticipated to unveil a slew of Surface products, including the much-rumored Surface Laptop Studio 2, alongside Microsoft’s latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.