In a bit of industry news, it has been revealed that Xbox COO Helen Chiang is leaving Microsoft after 21 years with the company. The details were first shared by The Verge in a report late last week.
Chiang has held a variety of notable positions during his tenure at Microsoft, such as Director of Xbox Live, Chief of Staff at Microsoft Studios, and a range of roles within the Minecraft team, including Studio Head.
She ended up becoming Xbox’s first COO in July, but is now leaving the role unexpectedly. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma reportedly shared a brief internal memo last Thursday:
“Helen Chiang is leaving Microsoft today. I am grateful for her years of service and wish her well,” Sharma said.
Sharma apparently indicated she would talk more about the COO role when plans are finalized, while Microsoft declined to “discuss individual personnel matters” when asked about the reasons for Chiang’s departure.
For what it’s worth, Eurogamer reports that it can were “terminated for violation of policy.”
“A verified source close to the situation separately told Eurogamer that Helen Chiang was allegedly ‘fired for violating policy.’ Eurogamer has not been able to independently verify this claim.”
As mentioned, the COO position was a new role that was created as part of the “Xbox Reset” in July, and here’s how Asha Sharma described it at the time:
For the first time, we are implementing a Director of Operations with end-to-end P&L accountability for content, hardware, platform and services. Helen Chiang has been promoted to this position and will report directly to me. During nearly two decades at XBOX, Helen helped build some of our most important businesses, from XBOX Live to leading Mojang and the Minecraft franchise. It will bring our businesses together under one operating model, ensuring we make clear investment decisions, learn from our successes and failures and hold ourselves accountable for results.
We will obviously update you when we have more details on the future of the COO role, and our best wishes go to Helen Chiang in all her future endeavors.
Gn tech
