Microsoft has announced that Qi Lu, one of its key executives, is stepping down to recover from a serious bicycling accident.
Lu was the head of Microsoft's Applications and Services Group. He also oversaw Bing, which is a part of the company's Artificial Intelligence unit. Microsoft is now reorganizing the group and has split it into different business units.
Lu had worked with Yahoo before joining Microsoft in 2008. He also worked with IBM and Carnegie Mellon University prior before that. Despite his low public profile, he is considered to be close to Microsoft founder Bill Gates and the company's CEO Satya Nadella.
Earlier this year, Lu had a bike accident and will be taking the time to recover from his injuries. In his time with Microsoft, Lu has worked on several projects including SharePoint, Yammer, Bing Apps and Office 365. After his recovery, Lu will continue as a personal advisor to Nadella and Gates.
Under the new scheme, the Bing and Cortana sections of the former group will be added to the newly-formed AI and Research Group. This new group will be headed by Microsoft Executive Vice President Harry Shum. The new group will consist of experts from various other teams such as Bing, Cortana and information platform.
The Office component will be transferred to Microsoft Executive Vice President Rajesh Jha, who will also lead the Skype team. With this reshuffle, Rajesh Jha is now a new member of Microsoft's Senior Leadership Team. The current chief of Skype Gurdeep Pall has been transferred to a new unspecified role.