Microsoft poaches Oracle man to lead North American push

Software giant Microsoft has appointed Judson Althoff to head up its sales and marketing efforts in the USA and Canada.

Althoff becomes corporate vice president at Microsoft, reporting to Kevin Turner, the company’s chief operating officer.

Formerly, he held a senior vice president role at Oracle US, dealing with indirect sales. And before that he worked at EMC.

“Judson has a track record of successfully developing, growing and leading global sales organizations with a culture of execution excellence,” according to Turner. “Judson’s proven leadership will enable us to continue to excel in delivering the best devices and services experience to our customers including businesses and consumers.”

He takes up his new job on March 29th next. He will manage a large sales, marketing and services team. His official job title is president, North America sales and marketing. Microsoft says North America contributes a significant proportion of the $73 billion in revenues it accrued in 2013.