Qi Lu is Microsoft’s Chosen One

Microsoft announced today that Qi Lu will join the company as the President of Online Services Group. Steve Ballmer tapped Lu to oversee all efforts in search, advertising, and online information and communcations.  Qi comes to Microsoft after 10 years at Yahoo, where he most recently served as executive vice president of engineering for all Yahoo’s search and advertising development efforts. He has a dotorate in computer science from Carnegie Mellon and holds over 20 U.S. patents.

There was a lot of speculation on who Microsoft would hire for this top position. Lu is an interesting choice because he has fundmentally been an R&D guy. About coming to Microsoft, Lu says “I am genuinely excited about the opportunities ahead for Microsoft to make an enormous impact on the online industry.”  Here is the email Ballmer sent to employees following the announcement. Read more