Microsoft has appointed Hayete Gallot to lead its security division. She will assume the role of Executive Vice President of Security and report directly to CEO Satya Nadella. Gallot is returning to Microsoft following a brief tenure at Google Cloud, where, since October 2024, she served as President of Customer Operations.
According to The Verge, the former head of the security division, Charlie Bell, will transition to a new role focusing on engineering quality assurance. Nadella stated this move was planned ahead of time, as Bell preferred concentrating on technical endeavors rather than leading the division. Bell had overseen the security and identity unit for the past five years—a period marked by some of Microsoft’s most damaging security incidents in terms of reputation, including the breach of U.S. government emails due to vulnerabilities within Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure.
These leadership changes, as noted by The Verge, come amidst ongoing struggles with the cyber defenses of the company’s cloud services. In 2024, the U.S. Cyber Safety Review Board issued a report harshly criticizing Microsoft, labeling the organization’s corporate security culture as “inadequate and requiring fundamental transformation.” This followed the hacking of U.S. government email by Chinese threat actors who exploited a weakness in the Microsoft Cloud infrastructure.
In reaction to this criticism, the company initiated the large-scale Secure Future Initiative (SFI), designed to deter espionage by foreign state actors. It is now up to Hayete Gallot to further execute this initiative and ensure that security concerns are paramount in the deployment of artificial intelligence technologies.
About the Author
