Leaked Microsoft org chart reveals the top people running Mustafa Suleyman’s new AI organization

A leaked organization chart shows the people running Microsoft’s new AI group under Mustafa Suleyman.

Microsoft in March hired Suleyman, head of startup Inflection AI and cofounder of AI pioneer Deepmind, to be CEO of a newly formed “Microsoft AI” group. The organization is responsible for consumer AI products such as Microsoft’s Copilot AI chatbot and the Bing search engine.

The org chart reveals 12 executives who report directly to Suleyman, including Inflection cofounder Karén Simonyan, and several Microsoft veterans with decades of tenure at the software giant.

Here are top players at Microsoft AI:

Karén Simonyan, CVP and chief scientist

Simonyan is one of three Inflection co-founders. He was the chief scientist at that startup, and he’s taking on this role again at Microsoft AI.

Before Inflection, Simonyan was a principal research scientist at Google’s DeepMind AI lab.

“Karén, a Co-founder and Chief Scientist of Inflection, is a renowned AI researcher and thought leader, who has led the development of some of the biggest AI breakthroughs over the past decade including AlphaZero,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote in a recent email to employees.

Rob Cromwell, VP engineering

Simonyan from Inflection AI, where he was the vice president of engineering.

Cromwell had been at Inflection for about six months, having joined the company from the security-camera startup Verkada.

Gabor Hirschler, chief of staff

Hirschler has spent more than 26 years at Microsoft. It appears he was most recently chief of staff for Mikhail Parakhin, who left Microsoft recently. Hirschler’s LinkedIn profile lists his current title as chief of staff for the CEO of advertising and web services, which was Parakhin’s role.

Jordi Ribas, CVP, search and distribution

Ribas has been at Microsoft for nearly 25 years. His LinkedIn profile lists his title as “CVP at Microsoft – Search & AI,” leading teams responsible for engineering, product, and growth in Copilot, Bing, and Microsoft Search in Bing for Enterprise. It’s unclear how his role may have changed under Suleyman.

Rukmini Iyer, CVP, Microsoft ads engineering

Iyer has worked for the company for 14 years. She has been a corporate vice president since 2020, when she was promoted from a distinguished engineer who led algorithms and infrastructure teams for Bing Ads.

Rajesh Sundaram, technical fellow

Sundaram has worked for Microsoft for more than 26 years and holds the prestigious title of technical fellow. His LinkedIn also lists the title of corporate vice president of Microsoft Edge and says he leads engineering and product for the Microsoft Edge browser and web platform.

Ali Akgun, CVP, mobile experiences and platform

Akgun has been at Microsoft for over 18 years. In September, he transitioned to his current position from a role he’d held since 2006 as corporate vice president of software engineering and quality for devices. September was also when Panos Panay, Microsoft’s chief product officer, left for Amazon.

Kya Sainsbury-Carter, CVP, Microsoft Advertising

Sainsbury-Carter is an 18-year veteran of Microsoft. Her stint includes more than a year in her current role leading the advertising team, which her LinkedIn says has more than $10 billion in annual revenue.

Qi Zhang, CVP, Microsoft AI APRD

Zhang is based in Beijing and has been at Microsoft for 22 years. ARPD is Microsoft’s Asia-Pacific Research and Development group. Zhang’s previous role was as a distinguished engineer working on ads, data, and enterprise AI.

Mike Davidson, CVP, design and research

Davidson has worked for Microsoft for about a year and a half. His previous roles include vice president of design at Twitter and founder of a news-media company called Newsvine that was acquired by NBCNews.com. He was also the director of media product development and design at the Walt Disney Internet Group.

Michael Bhaskar, staff writer

Microsoft has the cowriter of Suleyman’s book, “The Coming Wave,” on staff as a staff writer. Bhaskar was also a writer in residence at Suleyman’s former employer DeepMind and was a staff writer at Inflection for the first three months of this year.

Chris Daly, VP, strategy and business operations

Daly joined Microsoft AI in May after spending about nine years in investment banking at Robey Warshaw. Daly’s LinkedIn indicates he lives in London.