Microsoft’s gaming division
Xbox
is undergoing another leadership change. According to a report by The Verge, an internal memo sent to employees by
Microsoft
Gaming CEO
Phil Spencer
has confirmed that Xbox’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO),
Jerret West
, is preparing to leave the company to join
Roblox
as its new CMO and head of market expansion.
At Xbox, West led the team that developed marketing plans for games, hardware and Xbox Game Pass.
Following West’s departure, Microsoft will be reorganising some of its marketing teams, the memo adds. The memo also highlights that a new, expanded central gaming marketing team will be led by
Kirsten Ward
, VP of Xbox Integrated Marketing.
West spent eight years at Microsoft in Xbox marketing before leaving in 2011. He then spent seven years as head of marketing at Netflix. In late 2019, he returned to Microsoft to lead the marketing for the Xbox Series X/S consoles.
Microsoft shakes up Xbox leadership team once again
This year saw major changes within the Xbox leadership. In April, Kareem Choudhry, who was formerly leading Xbox’s emerging tech division, departed the company.
His team transitioned to the Xbox hardware division, prompting a reorganisation and a new “Xbox experiences and platforms” team emerged. This team is aimed towards streamlining the experience across Windows and consoles.
The latest development comes after a broader leadership shake-up that took place in October 2023.
Sarah Bond
was promoted to Xbox president to oversee all platform and hardware aspects.
Meanwhile, the company also expanded
Matt Booty
's role and made him the president of game content and studios, with
Bethesda
and
ZeniMax
studios under his purview.
Read what Microsoft Gaming CEO said in the memo
In the internal memo, Spencer wrote:
“I have some news to share with all of you: Jerret West, who has served as the Chief Marketing Officer of Xbox for four and a half years, will be leaving Microsoft to join Roblox as their new CMO and Head of Market Expansion. His last day will be June 30th.
On behalf of Team Xbox, I’d like to thank Jerret for everything he accomplished. During his time here, Jerret was instrumental in launching and growing communities like our Xbox social universe to 120M followers strong, and product expansion like Game Pass which is now available in more than 80 countries worldwide. He oversaw the creation and delivery of global marketing campaigns for numerous games, platforms (console, PC, cloud) and brand moments such as this year’s momentous Xbox Games Showcase. Roblox is an important partner for Xbox, and we look forward to working with Jerret and the Roblox team to connect more people around the world through the power of play.
As a team we are committed to growing the strong marketing capability in Gaming. Going forward, the Gaming Leadership Team and I have decided to place marketing closer to the businesses they support. Games marketing will sit inside of Studios, Xbox marketing will sit inside the Xbox team, international marketing will sit inside of the Consumer Sales Org, and our centralized marketing team will report to me. The following organisational changes will be effective on July 1st:
The Integrated Marketing team led by Kirsten Ward and the Programming and Events team led by Tina Summerford will come together as an expanded Central Gaming Marketing team under Kirsten, who will report to me as a member of the Gaming Executive Leadership Team. Chief of staff Pav Bhardwaj and executive assistant Kim Nold will report to Kirsten.
The Bethesda Publishing Marketing team, led by Erin Losi, will move to Game Content and Studios, reporting to Matt Booty.
The 1P Games Marketing Team including Xbox Game Studios and Mojang, led by Aaron Greenberg, will also move to Game Content and Studios, reporting to Matt.
The Xbox Marketing team, led by Chris Lee, will move to the Xbox Org, reporting to Sarah Bond.
The International Marketing team, led by Jim McMullin and Florian Liewer, will move to the Consumer Sales Org, reporting to Ami Silverman.
The Bethesda International Marketing team, led by Adam Carter, will also move to the Consumer Sales Org. Adam will be taking on a new role leading Business Operations at Bethesda, reporting to Jill Braff. The Consumer Sales Org will work on backfilling his role and share more at a later date.
We’re fortunate to have a deep bench of talent and experience, and I’m excited to see how our marketing will evolve under their leadership.
Phil”
