Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft's chief communications officer, is leaving the software giant after nearly 30 years of shaping how the company presents itself to the world, according to a memo he sent to staff. Shaw, 64, said he has decided it is time to move on and try new ventures, though he has not settled on what comes next. He plans to remain in his role until the end of the year.
Shaw said he and Takeshi Numoto, Microsoft's executive vice president and chief marketing officer, had been discussing the transition for some time and concluded that now was the right moment. «I remain optimistic about the company mission, the incredible talent on this team, and how much the company depends on us during this critical time,» Shaw wrote. «Together, we've accomplished amazing things. My gratefulness is endless.»
Shaw has held the top communications post for 17 years, capping a career at Microsoft that began in 1997. Before joining the company, he spent 12 years as president at We. Communications, where he worked closely with Microsoft's public relations apparatus. He is widely regarded as one of Silicon Valley's most recognized public relations professionals and has worked alongside all three of Microsoft's chief executives: founder Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and current CEO Satya Nadella.
His influence extended across events, senior executive access, and the broader architecture of how Microsoft communicates with customers, regulators, investors, and the press. In recent years, much of his time went to advocating for the company's artificial intelligence efforts, shaping public messaging around its evolving partnerships with OpenAI and Anthropic, and defending less successful businesses such as Xbox.
The departure comes as Microsoft has undergone several waves of change over the past two years. The company has prioritized growing its Copilot AI assistant and spent billions expanding its cloud computing business to meet demand for AI compute. During that period, several executives have left as Nadella reorganized teams around Copilot goals.
In March, Nadella created a unified Copilot team led by Jacob Andreou, a 33-year-old executive whose rise has been notably fast. Rajesh Jha, who worked closely with Copilot teams and oversaw Windows products as executive vice president of experiences and devices, announced his retirement the same month. Phil Spencer, who served as CEO of gaming and had been at the company for 38 years, also retired earlier this year and was replaced by Asha Sharma.
The leadership turnover has unfolded alongside significant workforce changes. In 2025, Microsoft laid off more than 15,000 employees across sales, Xbox, and other departments. In April, it announced its first-ever employee buyout offer, aimed at its most long-tenured employees.
Shaw's tenure spanned a dramatic transformation of Microsoft's business. When he began working for the company in 1997, its revenue was overwhelmingly based on sales of PC software such as the Windows 95 operating system and the Office 97 productivity suite. That same year, Microsoft famously invested $150 million into a struggling Apple, a move that helped stabilize the Mac maker.
Today, Microsoft's Azure cloud business is its growth engine, having crossed $100 billion in annual revenue in its most recent quarter. Much of that growth has been driven by AI demand, with a large part of the business coming from OpenAI. Microsoft has sought to diversify from its longtime partner while diverting computing resources toward improving Copilot. The company's AI lab recently unveiled its first reasoning model, MAI-Thinking-1, which it said matches leading models on some software engineering benchmarks, and said its latest coding model is 25 percent more efficient than its previous model.
Shaw, who lives in Seattle, served in the U.S. Marine Corps and graduated from the University of Oregon with a bachelor's degree in journalism. He has worked in public relations since the early 1990s. His planned exit leaves Microsoft searching for a new leader of a communications operation that has been central to the company's public identity through three chief executives and multiple strategic pivots.