Two Retire From Microsoft Board

Microsoft’s board is losing two members and gaining two, in the latest round of changes for a board that has seen some major shifts this year.

Longtime board members Dave Marquardt and Dina Dublon are stepping down, deciding not to seek re-election. They will retire at the end of their current term following the annual shareholders’ meeting in December, Microsoft announced Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Teri List-Stoll, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Kraft Foods Group, and Charles Scharf, CEO of Visa, will join the board Oct. 1.

The board also declared a quarterly dividend of 31 cents per share, up from 28 cents last quarter. The dividend is payable Dec. 11 to shareholders of record on Nov. 20. The ex-dividend date will be Nov. 18.

List-Stoll, 51, joined Kraft in September 2013 as senior vice president leading the business-unit finance teams, and was appointed CFO in December, according to Kraft. Before that, she spent nearly 20 years at Procter & Gamble, serving most recently as senior vice president and treasurer. She also serves on the board of Danaher Corp. and as a trustee of the Financial Accounting Foundation, according to Microsoft.

Scharf, 49, CEO of Visa since November 2012, spent nine years before that at JPMorgan Chase as CEO of its retail-financial services and managing director of One Equity Partners, the firm’s private-investment arm. He has also served as CEO and CFO of BankOne Corp, and CFO of Salomon Smith Barney and the global corporate and investment-bank division of Citigroup, according to Microsoft. He serves on the board of trustees of Johns Hopkins University and the board of directors of the Financial Services Roundtable.

“I’m excited to have both Teri and Charlie joining our board,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a news release. “Teri brings exceptional financial and operational expertise, as well as great insights from her two decades of experience in consumer and retail industries. Charlie, as a sitting CEO of a large global business, brings additional strategic and operational depth to the Microsoft board, as well as a deep understanding of how commerce is changing globally.”

Marquardt, 65, a founding general partner of private venture-capital firm August Capital, is one of Microsoft’s earliest investors. He is departing the board after serving 33 years.

Dublon, 61, former CFO of JPMorgan Chase, has been on the Microsoft board since 2005.

“As one of our earliest board members, Dave has played an indispensable role in Microsoft’s growth and development, providing sage counsel and invaluable industry insights,” Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and technology adviser, said in the news release. “Dina has also been a great board member for almost a decade, and we all appreciate her guidance and support.”

Microsoft’s board has seen some big shifts this year.

In February, Gates stepped down as chairman, saying it would give him more time to serve as a technology adviser to Satya Nadella, who was appointed that month to succeed Steve Ballmer as the company’s CEO. Gates remains on the board.

John Thompson, CEO of Virtual Instruments, was named board chairman.

In March, Stephen Luczo, Seagate Technology Chairman and CEO, stepped down from the board, while G. Mason Morfit, President of ValueAct Capital, joined it. Morfit’s seat came as the result of an agreement in which Microsoft’s board averted a proxy battle. ValueAct had been pressuring Microsoft to take steps to increase shareholder value.

In July, John Stanton, a wireless-industry pioneer, was named to the board. Stanton, who founded the company that eventually led to T-Mobile US, is currently Chairman of Trilogy Equity Partners and Trilogy International Partners.

In August, Ballmer stepped down from the board, saying his new role as owner of a professional basketball team, as well as a teaching gig, would keep him busy. While still Microsoft’s largest individual shareholder, Ballmer severed management ties to the company in making that move.

In addition to Gates, Dublon, Marquardt, Nadella, Thompson, Stanton and Morfit, Microsoft’s current board includes Maria Klawe, President of Harvey Mudd College; Charles Noski, former Vice Chairman of Bank of America; and Dr. Helmut Panke, former chairman of the board of management at BMW.

In addition to the board shifts, many other changes have occurred at the company this year, including Nadella’s efforts to transform Microsoft into a “productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world.”

Part of those changes have involved layoffs. Microsoft announced in July that it would be cutting 18,000 jobs. Microsoft said back then that it was starting to eliminate 13,000 of those jobs, with the majority of the remaining 5,000 to be notified over the next six months.

The time has apparently come for that next round of notifications. According to reports in ZDNet and Bloomberg quoting unidentified sources, Microsoft is set to notify the next group of employees Thursday that their jobs are being cut. The reduction will come from divisions all across the company, according to the reports.

Microsoft said it does not comment on rumors or speculation.

This article appeared in print in the September 17th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.