Yahoo! Oldhand to Drive Microsoft Online Vehicles
Microsoft has announced that Dr. Qi Lu, who worked at Yahoo!, will join
the company as president of the Online Services Group. Microsoft’s
decision to hire a Yahoo! executive comes close on the heels of a
similar move by Yahoo!, which had taken
Jeff Dossett, executive producer for
the MSN Media Network, about a month back.
Dr. Lu
will lead Microsoft's businesses in search and online advertising and
other online information and communications services. He will report to
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Lu most
recently served as executive vice president of Engineering for the
Search and Advertising Technology Group at Yahoo!, where he was
responsible for development efforts around Yahoo!'s Web search and
monetization platforms. Dr. Lu left Yahoo! in August 2008 after 10 years
of service.
Dr. Lu
and Ballmer say they’re excited.
Before
joining Yahoo! in 1998, Dr. Lu was a Research Staff Member at IBM
Almaden Research Center. Earlier, he worked at Carnegie Mellon
University as a Research Associate, and at Fudan University in China as
a faculty member. He holds 20 U.S. patents, and received his bachelor of
science and master of science in computer science from Fudan University
and his Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University.
Lu's
first day at Microsoft will be Jan. 5, 2009.
In his
role running the Online Services Group, he will oversee several groups
including the Advertiser & Publisher Solutions business, managed by
Scott Howe who was promoted to corporate vice president; the Online
Audience business, managed by Senior Vice President Yusuf Mehdi; OSG
Research & Development, managed by Senior Vice President Satya Nadella;
and OSG Finance, managed by Rik van der Kooi who was promoted to
corporate vice president.
