Microsoft Fires CIO for Policy Violation

By Eric Lai

November 12, 2007 12:00 PM ET

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Computerworld - Microsoft Corp. disclosed last week that it had fired CIO Stuart Scott after an internal investigation found that he had violated company policies.

Kevin Turner, Microsofts chief operating officer, announced Scotts termination in a memo sent to employees last Monday. The software vendor confirmed the firing but wouldnt elaborate on the reason Scott was let go or say when it expects to hire a permanent replacement.

Microsoft said that in the interim, the CIO duties will be shared by two people: Shahla Aly, general manager of worldwide services, strategy and planning; and Alain Crozier, corporate vice president and chief financial officer in the companys sales, marketing and services group.

Scott had worked at Microsoft for the past two years.

Scott, who was unavailable for comment, was rumored to have been placed on administrative leave more than a month ago.

In response to an inquiry from Computerworld after those rumors surfaced, a spokeswoman at Microsofts public relations agency said that Scott appeared to be working in his office as normal. When asked again about the administrative-leave issue last week, another agency spokeswoman said, We had no personal knowledge of that at that time.

Scott, who was a corporate vice president at Microsoft, joined the company in late 2005 as co-CIO and was given full control of its IT department late last year. He previously spent 17 years in IT jobs at General Electric Co., finishing his career there as CIO of the GE Industrial Systems division.

John Challenger, president of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., noted that CIOs have access to many of a companys deepest secrets. Thus, there is an increasing desire among corporate executives to hold them to the highest standards of behavior, according to Challenger. This job is for Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, he said.

Art Crane, principal at and founder of Capstone Services, a human resources consulting firm in Sherman, Conn., said via e-mail that its important for companies, particularly one as visible as Microsoft, to deal with infractions swiftly.

Doing so, Crane added, sends a message to employees, stockholders, regulators and the general public that [a company] wont tolerate violations.

Read more about careers in Computerworld's Careers Knowledge Center.

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