Microsoft makes Amy Coleman its new chief people officer

Microsoft announced today that Amy Coleman will be taking over as the new executive vice president chief people officer, succeeding Kathleen Hogan who has held the position for the past ten years.

Hogan will continue as an executive vice president but will transition to the newly established Office of Strategy and Transformation within Microsoft, reporting directly to CEO Satya Nadella.

Coleman’s appointment is significant as Microsoft is one of the largest employers in the U.S., with a workforce of 228,000 employees as of June 2024. She brings over 25 years of experience at the company, having first joined as a compensation manager in 1996.

Hogan will still be part of the senior leadership team.

“Amy has led HR for our corporate functions across the company for the past six years, following various HR roles partnering across engineering, sales, marketing, and business development spanning 25 years,” Nadella stated in a memo to employees.

“In that time, she has been a trusted advisor to both Kathleen and to me as she orchestrated many cross-company workstreams as we evolved our culture, improved our employee engagement model, established our employee relations team, and drove enterprise crisis response for our people,” he added.

Having joined Microsoft in 2003, Hogan has overseen the evolution of some of the company’s human resources practices, emphasizing the importance of employees cultivating a growth mindset inspired by psychologist Carol Dweck.

“We made significant symbolic changes to demonstrate our commitment to driving cultural transformation, from revamping the performance-review system to restructuring our all-hands company meetings and monthly Q&A sessions with employees,” Hogan mentioned in a 2019 interview with Business Insider.

Hogan advocated for managers to assess the inclusivity of employees and implemented changes in the handling of internal sexual harassment cases.

Coleman, who has served as Microsoft’s corporate vice president for human resources and corporate functions for the past four years, was responsible for a team of 200 HR professionals and played a key role in developing Microsoft’s hybrid work strategy and the HR aspects of the company’s response to Covid, as noted on her LinkedIn profile.