Last month we reported on allegations of a toxic work environment within the executive team at Microsoft, brought by over 25 employees. One of the executives singled out was Alex Kipman, the head of Microsoft's HoloLens platform. Following the allegations, Kipman has taken the decision to resign from the company.
While Microsoft has not said anything official about the allegations, the company's cloud chief Scott Guthrie confirmed Kipman's departure to GeekWire.
“We have mutually decided that this is the right time for him to leave the company to pursue other opportunities,” he says in a memo.
Alex Kipman will remain with Microsoft for the next two months to help with the transition to a new head of HoloLens. Specifically, the division's hardware teams will now fold into the Windows + Devices division led by Panos Panay.
Allegations
Last month's report names current HoloLens chief Alex Kipman, former Windows head Terry Myerson, and Tom Kean, an executive on the Azure team who helped finalize the $10 billion JEDI War Cloud project.
Looking at Kipman, the report points to an incident where the executive was in a management session with male and female managers. While showing a demo of a Mixed Reality program, Kipman was streaming what he saw on HoloLens onto a screen.
The report says there have been long-time concerns about Kipman, including complaints of “inappropriate touching and comments”.
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