Microsoft today moved to fill a leadership gap left by recent executive departures -- promoting three of the company's existing executives to division presidents. Being elevated are Kurt DelBene, president of the newly named Microsoft Office Division; Andy Lees, president of the Mobile Communications Business, and Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business.

As part of the changes, Microsoft is splitting out its Microsoft Business Solutions group (including the Microsoft Dynamics products) to report directly to CEO Steve Ballmer, a move he has made in the past when a particular group is in need of special attention. That change is why DelBene's group is called the Microsoft Office Division -- it was the Microsoft Business Division under Stephen Elop, who left to become Nokia CEO.

The company is effectively adding one divisional president, bringing the total to six, by naming presidents for both the Mobile Communications Business and the Interactive Entertainment Business. Previously those were combined under Robbie Bach, who is retiring as president of the Entertainment & Devices Division, which contains those two businesses.

A spokesman says the company's structure will remain the same for purposes of financial reporting.

Here's the email Ballmer sent out to employees outlining the changes.

From: Steve Ballmer
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 8:52 AM
To: Microsoft - All Employees
Subject: Kurt DelBene, Andy Lees and Don Mattrick Promotions

One key to Microsoft’s success over the years has been our ability to combine a vision for the future of technology with execution that creates compelling products and services that delight our customers.

Today I am pleased to announce promotions for three people who really embody that combination of vision and execution:

Kurt DelBene, President, Microsoft Office Division – Kurt is an 18-year Microsoft veteran, who most recently led the MBD engineering and development teams, including the development of Office 2010 products and services. As President of Microsoft Office Division, Kurt will now oversee both the engineering and marketing functions for clients, servers and services for information workers, including Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Project, Visio, and our speech technology investments. Chris Capossela will continue to drive all marketing and product management, and Amy Hood will continue to serve as the CFO, both reporting to Kurt. Building on the technical excellence and success of Office 2010, Kurt and his teams will focus on driving adoption of Office 2010, accelerating the adoption of our cloud productivity services, and envisioning and delivering our next generation of productivity solutions for both enterprise and consumer customers. To help fuel this focus, the Microsoft Business Solutions group under Kirill Tatarinov, and their Microsoft Dynamics products for financial, supply chain, and customer relationship management, will report directly to me.

Andy Lees, President, Mobile Communications Business – Since February 2008, Andy has led the effort to build our mobile business, assembling an outstanding new marketing and product development leadership team, and driving toward the launch of Windows Phone 7 this holiday season. With 20 years experience at Microsoft, Andy is a proven leader who knows what it takes to win against the toughest competition. As President of MCB, Andy will continue to oversee the overall marketing and product development for our mobility efforts, which are so critical to Microsoft’s future. Those of you who were at the company meeting or viewed it online saw what Windows Phone 7 looks like – there is a lot to be proud of.

Don Mattrick, President, Interactive Entertainment Business – For the past three years, Don has led our Interactive Entertainment Business, assembling a strong leadership team, nurturing a world-class organization, delivering breakthrough products, and steadily moving the business to greater profitability in the face of intense competition. Don and his team have increased our Xbox 360 installed base from 10 million to more than 42 million worldwide, and grown Xbox LIVE membership from 6 million to more than 25 million. Don and his team are getting ready to ship the new Kinect for Xbox 360, which will open up gaming to a much broader global audience through the world’s first controller-free gaming and entertainment system. As President of IEB, Don will continue to oversee Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, Kinect, Zune Music and Video, and Mediaroom, as well as PC and mobile interactive entertainment, manufacturing and supply chain management, which were added to his portfolio in May when Robbie announced his intention to retire later this year.

Today’s promotions underscore the strength of our collective leadership team and set us up well to build on the momentum we are seeing across virtually every aspect of our business.

Please join me in congratulating Kurt, Andy and Don on their well-deserved promotions.

Steve