Microsoft gets a new CIO

Microsoft will announce tomorrow that Tony Scott, currently CIO at Disney is going to become their new CIO, reporting to Kevin Turner, COO (himself a former CIO at Wal-Mart)

I cannot say enough good things about Tony. We worked briefly together at PwC (now IBM), and since then he has put together a great career with stops at GM, Bristol Myers Squibb and now Disney. Always available for a phone call or a speaking slot at a conference in spite of his schedule.

He joins Microsoft at an interesting juncture with at least some of the leadership in transition (Gates, Raikes) and the vendor seemingly more focused on Nintendo, Google, Apple and consumer markets more than the enterprise market.

Hopefully he will not just help them keep the IT lights on, but also get them far more excited about the enterprise market, and get more of the ears of his fellow CIO peers.

And I guess I will have to be just a bit nicer to Microsoft -)

Update 1/16 - Microsoft confirms

CIO Magazine and InformationWeek had earlier also reported on the likelihood. Interestingly, both think Microsoft is hiring him because of his Disney experience - so more consumer technology focus.

If it is, they will not be taking advantage of Tony's full range of capabilities. This at a time when many CIOs are not happy funding Microsoft much more so than consumers, and yet having to put up with a torrent of bug fixes and a Vista upgrade few can cost justify.