IIT Madras Alumnus Pavan Davuluri Appointed Head Of Microsoft Windows

New Delhi: Pavan Davuluri, an alumnus of IIT Madras, has been appointed as the new head of Microsoft Windows and Surface.

Davuluri was appointed to the post after previous head Panos Panay left last year to join Amazon. Earlier, Microsoft split the Windows and Surface groups, assigning separate leadership to each. While Davuluri oversaw Surface Silicon work, Mikhail Parakhin led the Windows. However, with the departure of Parakhin, Davuluri has been assigned the responsibility of both Windows and Surface.

Davuluri has a strong Indian connection, having graduated from the esteemed IIT Madras. With his recent appointment, he joins the league of Indians holding leadership positions in tech companies in the US alongside Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella among others.

In an internal letter, Rajesh Jha, Microsoft’s head of experience and devices, said, “As part of this change, we are bringing together the Windows Experiences and Windows + Devices teams as a core part of the Experiences + Devices (E+D) division. This will enable us to take a holistic approach to building silicon, systems, experiences, and devices that span Windows client and cloud for this AI era.”

“Pavan Davuluri will lead this team and continue to report to me. Shilpa Ranganathan and Jeff Johnson and their teams will report directly to Pavan. The Windows team will continue to work closely with the Microsoft AI team on AI, silicon, and experiences,” The Verge quoted Jha as saying.

Davuluri has been associated with Microsoft for over 23 years. After completing Masters in Science from the University of Maryland, he had joined Microsoft as the Reliability Component Manager.