Panos Panay will now oversee virtual and mixed realities at Microsoft. The head of the Windows and Hardware division restores the Mixed Reality branch after the resignation of Alex Kipman… who was also responsible for the Hololens and the military variant.
Panos Panay, Microsoft’s executive vice president and chief product officer, sees it growing slightly more important in the Redmond giant’s organizational chart. A character known to fans hardware Microsoft signed, department head Windows and hardware From the group she made herself known to the general public as the figurehead of the rooftop branch.
He will now oversee an additional division: that of mixed reality, which also includes the development of the HoloLens headset and its military variant, Project IVAS (Integrated optical zoom system) based on HoloLens 2.
Towards a holier work environment for AR/VR teams from Microsoft?
This reorganization comes after the departure of Alex Kipman, the former president of the Mixed Reality branch and HoloLens. After 21 years at Microsoft (notably leading Microsoft’s efforts on the Kinect file, within the Xbox division), the person in question resigned this week over inappropriate, even outright abusive, behavior with his subordinates. Over the years, 25 employees are said to have filed internal complaints against Alex Kipman, accusing, among other things, of viewing pornographic content in VR in front of employees, and of diminishing the work of female employees.
“Over the past few months Alex Kipman and I have discussed the future of the team. We mutually decided that it was a good time for him to leave the company to pursue other opportunities.Scott Guthrie, Head of Cloud and Artificial Intelligence at Microsoft, commented in an internal email that he discovered Jake Wire. Scott Guthrie adds that Kipman will remain at Microsoft for an additional two months to organize the transition, before “Looking for the next step in your journeyWe read more.
Note however that at this point Microsoft has not commented on this departure. However, the company usually makes organizational changes in early July, to kick off the new fiscal year, she notes Windows Central. The company may wait this period of time to publicly announce Alex Kipman’s resignation.
In any case, and if the HoloLens 3 project appears to be nipped in the bud, Microsoft continues to exploit its augmented reality technologies under a military contract. Scott Guthrie explains in his email that the IVAS project was “Officially approved by the US military to enter the operational testing phase“.
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