Tech
Tech Moves: Tableau CEO steps down; Microsoft taps new executive VPs; Avanade’s new CEO
Ryan Aytay, a longtime Salesforce exec who has led Tableau as CEO since 2023, is departing.
Aytay revealed the news on LinkedIn on Tuesday. He called his 19-year tenure “a front-row seat to innovation, a masterclass in leadership, and a community that has shaped who I am professionally and personally.” Aytay said he’ll share more about a “new challenge” later.
Aytay joined Salesforce in 2007 and became chief business officer in 2020 before taking the president role at Tableau in February 2022. A year later he replaced Mark Nelson as CEO.
The appointment came four years after Salesforce paid $15.7 billion to acquire Seattle-based Tableau, a leader in the data visualization sector.
Tableau reported 4% revenue growth in Salesforce’s most recent quarter — down from 15% growth in the previous quarter.
In his post, Aytay praised Tableau’s “DataFam” community and said “the future of Tableau and Salesforce is incredibly bright.”
His departure follows the recent exit of Denise Dresser, who led Slack, another Salesforce division. Dresser is now chief revenue officer at OpenAI. Salesforce’s cybersecurity leader announced Monday that he left the company last week.
Salesforce stock is down more than 14% over the past week amid investor fears over AI disrupting traditional software providers. The company maintains an office in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood and another in Bellevue.
— Microsoft is naming four new executive vice presidents, according to a memo viewed by CNBC.
Deb Cupp, Nick Parker, Ralph Haupter, and Mala Anand will get the new titles. They will continue reporting to Judson Althoff, who took on the newly created position of CEO of Microsoft’s commercial business in October. Althoff is overseeing a reformulated commercial team that includes engineering, sales, marketing, operations, and finance leaders representing more than 75% of Microsoft’s revenue.
Microsoft reported better-than-expected earnings last week but its shares fell as much as 12% in trading the day after the earnings report — erasing $357 billion from its market value. Several factors may be contributing to market skepticism, including the company’s massive AI spending bets and concern about dependence on OpenAI.
— Avanade named Chris Howarth as its new CEO. Howarth previously spent nearly three decades at Accenture, where he was a senior managing director leading the firm’s Accenture Business Group that focuses on Microsoft, Accenture, and Avanade.
Howarth replaces Rodrigo Caserta, who is joining Microsoft as a corporate vice president. He spent more than a decade at Avanade, and was named CEO in 2024.
“Rodrigo’s leadership has positioned Avanade for sustained momentum, and his move to Microsoft further strengthens our partnership,” Howarth said in a statement. “I’m excited to work with our people, clients, and partners at this pivotal moment, delivering on the huge potential of AI to drive transformation and accelerate value.”
Avanade formed in 2000 by Accenture and Microsoft and provides various digital, cloud, and AI-related services across the Microsoft ecosystem.
— Kelsey Peterson, a former vice president at Weber Shandwick and senior director at Rubrik, joined Microsoft as a senior communications manager for the company’s security business.
Read about other Tech Moves from earlier today here.