Martinez

Maria Martinez, the corporate vice president in charge of the big Microsoft Services division, is leaving the company. Microsoft confirmed the move in response to our inquiry this morning, saying Martinez would be replaced by Kathleen Hogan, current corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Customer Service & Support

Microsoft Services is the part of the company that provides consulting and product support to the company's big enterprise customers. Martinez's corporate bio, last updated in April of this year, says she leads a team of 17,000 people, but the services and consulting group was among those hardest hit in the company's latest round of layoffs.

"On Friday, Maria Martinez, corporate vice president of Microsoft Services, announced her retirement from Microsoft effective July 6th," said a company representative in an email. "As a six-year veteran of the company, Maria has played an integral role in the development of solutions and services for telecommunications and strategically executing against our Services vision. Microsoft is thankful for Maria’s many contributions and wishes her well."

No specific explanation was given for her departure, except that it was a personal decision to explore other opportunities.

A series of executives have left or announced their departure from Microsoft in recent weeks, including search manager Hugh Williams; longtime Windows executive Jawad Khaki; Microsoft Startup Accelerator chief Sanjay Parthasarathy; and Xbox executive John Schappert.

Microsoft's fiscal year ends tomorrow, but the company says that's not playing a role in the timing. "Maria’s departure, like others announced recently are unrelated to the end of the fiscal year and are reflective of personal decisions to leave the company and explore other opportunities," said the email from the company representative.