Microsoft’s CEO is putting Brad Smith in charge of communications, memo shows

Microsoft‘s CEO Satya Nadella has a new plan for who will oversee the company’s public announcements, according to an internal memo viewed by Business Insider.

President Brad Smith will be in charge of the company’s communications department, previously overseen by Chief Marketing Officer Takeshi Numoto.

This will hand oversight of corporate communications to an executive who has become the public face of Microsoft’s positions on regulation, geopolitics, AI governance, and other issues shaping the company’s global expansion.

Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s current chief communications officer, recently announced plans to leave the company at the end of the year. Microsoft hasn’t named a replacement for Shaw but Nadella said Brent Colburn, vice president for global public affairs, will become interim communications leader.

“Few leaders embody Microsoft’s voice as authentically as Brad,” Nadella wrote in the memo. “He brings a deep understanding of our…