Learn all about Pavan Davuluri, the new Surface and Windows chief at Microsoft who studied at IIT Madras

Microsoft has gone through an extensive management overhaul over the past six months. Satya Nadella and Co. have now chosen a new boss to lead the Surface and Windows team, which was left vacant when Panos Panay left for rival Amazon in 2023.

The company has tapped one of its senior employees, Pavan Davuluri, to lead the combined team, as reported by The Verge, which has obtained access to an internal memo sharing this update. The memo also points to Microsoft’s decision to merge the Surface and Windows teams, which could help the company focus on bringing software and hardware together and bring products that fit seamlessly into its philosophy and design.

Who is the new Microsoft Surface and Windows Head Pavan Davuluri?

Davuluri is no stranger to the company, in fact he has spent over 23 years at Microsoft, before which he graduated from IIT Madras and then permanently settled in the US where he completed his Masters at the University of Maryland. According to his LinkedIn profile, Davuluri started his Microsoft career in 2001 as director of reliability components, and by 2005 was general manager of the Surface team.

He even got a big profile jump in October 2023 when he was made VP of the Windows + Devices team, which he now leads from the top. 23 years at Microsoft and being a key part of the current team allows Davuluri to seamlessly take over and allow Nadella and Co. to build products and software for the future.

Things are moving fast at Microsoft

Microsoft has also made a big move, recently hiring Google DeepMind founder Mustafa Suleyman to lead the company’s AI division. Nadella has also managed to acquire Inflection AI and its workforce, which works closely on new AI tools for the company, as well as OpenAI’s tight association. The company is having a big AI event on May 20, where we heard Nadella, Davuluri, and Co. walk us through some exciting new updates.