Rumor: Kevin Turner To Replace Steve Ballmer As Microsoft's CEO

Microsoft’s board is in search for the new CEO for Microsoft as current CEO Steve Ballmer is retiring next year. Microsoft previously announced that they are considering both internal and external candidates for this job. Reuters reported that former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and current Ford CEO Alan Mulally are now part of the shortlisted external candidates list. Also the internal candidates under consideration includes former Skype CEO Tony Bates, who is now responsible for Microsoft’s business development, and Satya Nadella, the company’s cloud and enterprise chief.

There is a new report from Chinese blog WPDang where Microsoft’s COO Kevin Turner is among the internal candidates list. It was also reported that Kevin Turner will become CEO of Microsoft replacing Steve Ballmer for next 2-3 years followed by Stephen Elop becoming the CEO.

Kevin Turner worked nearly 20 years at Wal-Mart Stores before coming to Microsoft. Being COO for the past 8 years at Microsoft, Kevin knows about all the business divisions inside out. Appointing Kevin(COO) as the CEO for Microsoft is an obvious choice in near term since no other person knows about the company as he does. Kevin is a great leader who can drive great performance from Microsoft, but is he is not a visionary who can guide Microsoft for the next decade. May be that was the reason board has decided to put Stephen Elop on seat after 2-3 years.

Anyway, this is just a rumor. We have to wait for official confirmation before drawing out conclusions. What do you think?

Source: WPDang