(19 January 2008 6:25 pm)

MUMBAI: Microsoft Corp. has announced the appointment of Tony Scott to the role of chief information officer (CIO) and corporate vice president of Microsoft. Scott will assume his new role in February and report to Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer.

Scott, 56, will manage Microsoft's 4,000-person global information technology organisation that manages critical technology systems supporting the company's worldwide sales, marketing and services efforts, as well as enterprise systems and applications for all corporate processes.

"We will leverage Scott's deep experience in running global IT organizations, and his focus will be in three key areas. First, we want to run a world-class IT department. Second, as Microsoft's biggest user of our products and solutions, Scott and the IT team will drive our solutions and deployment throughout our enterprise and provide valuable input and feedback to our product groups. Third, we will call upon him to connect and collaborate with CIOs around the world to regularly share best practices with our customers and partners," avers Turner.

On his new role, Scott said, "More than any other company, Microsoft knows how important it is to leverage IT for strategic business advantage, and I look forward to building on this success in my new role."

Scott brings more than 25 years of experience running global IT operations for leading corporations. Prior to Microsoft, Scott served as senior vice president and chief information officer of The Walt Disney Co., where he was the first CIO to manage companywide IT.

During his time at Disney, Scott led the company through a major transformation, which included improving the reliability and effectiveness of the company's information systems, shifting focus more toward employee enablement, and upgrading core IT infrastructure including datacenter reliability.

Before joining Disney, Scott served as chief technology officer at General Motors Corp. and vice president of operations at Bristol-Meyers Squibb Co.