Microsoft moves communications under Brad Smith’s CELA team

Microsoft is moving its communications organization from marketing into Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs (CELA), putting Vice Chair and President Brad Smith in charge as longtime Chief Communications Officer Frank Shaw prepares to leave later in 2026.

The change puts Microsoft’s public voice under Smith as product launches, AI research claims, regulation, and enterprise sales increasingly overlap. Smith is already one of the company’s most visible executives on policy, regulatory, and corporate issues. He takes responsibility for communications from Chief Marketing Officer Takeshi Numoto, while Microsoft searches inside and outside the company for Shaw’s permanent successor.

Brent Colburn, Microsoft’s vice president of global public affairs, will serve as interim communications leader. The communications leadership team will report to Colburn, who will report to Smith. Shaw will continue advising Smith and Colburn during the handoff.

Microsoft is moving communications from a group focused on marketing campaigns into the division that handles government affairs, legal work, public policy, and external corporate relationships. The company has not named a permanent replacement for Shaw or provided a departure date beyond later in 2026.

A communications strategy built around product teams

Chief Executive Satya Nadella described the reorganization as a response to a fractured media environment and a way to put more Microsoft employees in front of customers, partners, and the public. The plan points to a less centralized model in which engineers, sellers, and partner-facing teams become more visible messengers instead of routing every product narrative through a traditional corporate communications chain.

“Communications has never been more important to Microsoft. The company is changing, our industry is changing, and the world around us is changing.”

“In many ways, the people closest to the work have the best opportunity to shape how Microsoft is understood.”

Nadella said Microsoft plans to give those employees tools and support to communicate effectively, connected by a common strategy and set of principles. Distributing public-facing communication can make technical work more legible, but it requires coordination when claims involve security, enterprise commitments, intellectual property, regulation, or product availability.

The company’s plan does not call for product teams to publish independently. Nadella described an effort to bring product storytelling, marketing, and communications together “in new ways,” while CELA connects communications more closely to the legal and policy operations under Smith.

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman has set an ambition for the company’s AI operation: becoming one of the world’s top four labs and building frontier models. Companies making model-performance claims, announcing research, and facing government scrutiny need technical spokespeople who can explain the work and an organization that can control what is promised and how it is qualified.

Shaw’s departure leaves a long-running role open

Shaw has spent more than 17 years in Microsoft’s communications function and is leaving after nearly three decades with the company. Nadella credited him with guiding Microsoft through major moments and serving as counsel to the leadership team.

“He has made tremendous contributions to the company and to our communications function over the last 17+ years.”

The permanent CCO search remains unresolved. Microsoft says it is considering internal and external candidates, leaving Colburn as interim leader as the company prepares for what Nadella called an important fall slate of events and marketing activity.

The memo makes Smith the leader of the function, but does not say whether the next communications chief will have the same standing, reporting relationship, or remit Shaw had when communications was part of marketing.

The wider Microsoft reorganization thread

The communications change follows an August 2026 move involving Microsoft’s consumer-facing products. Microsoft said it would retire the Copilot mascot Mico and three consumer features while merging its consumer and Microsoft 365 apps, as we reported when the app consolidation was announced.

That move concerned product software rather than corporate communications, and Microsoft has not described the decisions as connected. One combines apps and retires consumer features; the other moves communications under the executive group responsible for external affairs and legal matters.

Nadella’s memo does not describe a process for technical review, executive approval, or resolving conflicts between people closest to a product and those responsible for Microsoft’s legal exposure.

Smith, rather than Microsoft’s marketing chief, now owns the communications function, and the company has not named Shaw’s permanent replacement.