Microsoft appointed former Google Cloud executive Hayete Gallot as executive vice president for security, the company announced Wednesday. Gallot returns to Microsoft after a stint at Google where she served as president of customer experience.
The appointment marks Gallot's second tenure at Microsoft, where she previously spent more than 15 years in senior leadership roles across engineering and sales. She most recently served as corporate vice president for commercial solution areas from 2021 until her departure in 2024.
Gallot will report directly to CEO Satya Nadella and oversee Microsoft's overall security strategy, covering both internal systems and products used by businesses and consumers. She replaces Charlie Bell, who led Microsoft's security team since joining from Amazon in 2021.
Bell will shift into a role focused on engineering quality, continuing to report directly to Nadella.
During her previous Microsoft tenure, Gallot played critical roles in building two of the company's biggest franchises, Windows and Office, leading commercial solution areas' go-to-market efforts. She was also instrumental in the design and implementation of Microsoft's Security Solution Area.
At Google Cloud, Gallot's customer experience role placed her close to enterprise concerns around reliability, data protection, and service quality. Nadella cited her background in both product and customer-facing roles as key qualifications for the security leadership position.
The leadership change comes as Microsoft faces investor pressure over slower Azure growth and broader uncertainty around AI's impact on its core software business. Bell's tenure coincided with several major security incidents, including a 2023 breach involving government email accounts that prompted a critical US security review.
Microsoft responded to that breach by making operational changes and tying cybersecurity performance more closely to employee evaluations.
Ales Holecek will also move into a new role as chief architect for security, reporting to Gallot. The organizational changes suggest Microsoft wants tighter coordination between security planning and product development across Windows, Azure, and its expanding AI services.
Gallot's appointment represents a strategic shift toward combining product development with customer value realization in Microsoft's security approach. Her experience spans both technical implementation and enterprise customer relationships across two of the largest cloud providers.
