Microsoft Fires Its CIO After Investigation

Microsoft has fired its chief information officer, Stuart Scott, the company said in a short statement Tuesday.

"We can confirm that Stuart Scott was terminated after an investigation for violation of company policies," the company said. "We have no further information to share."

Microsoft is already looking for a replacement. Microsoft General Manager Shahla Aly and Alain Crozier, a Microsoft VP in charge of the company's CFO, sales, marketing and services group will take over Scott's duties while Microsoft looks around.

Scott was hired as Microsoft's CIO in the summer of 2005. Prior to his work at Microsoft, Scott had been a divisional CIO for several divisions during his 17 years with General Electric, most recently as executive VP and CIO of GE Healthcare. Though he began as a co-CIO at Microsoft with Ron Markezich, Scott eventually replaced Markezich. Markezich is now a Microsoft VP in charge of the company's new enterprise managed services line, known as Microsoft Online.

Just last month, Scott sat onstage at the InformationWeek 500 Conference alongside Microsoft COO Kevin Turner. While there, Scott touted data center consolidation, trimming the number of apps running inside Microsoft, a virtualization effort, the use of new collaborative software, and a shift toward spending more of Microsoft's IT budget on new product development.

In an interview posted on Microsoft's Web site that took place soon after Scott's hiring, Scott said he was drawn to Microsoft partially by employees' devotion to the company.

"I was really attracted by the people and the passion and loyalty they have for Microsoft," he said. "I get to work with some of the best, brightest and most driven people in the IT industry. They are here to achieve a higher purpose, not just to earn a paycheck."

His mission was to bring "operational excellence" to Microsoft's CIO job, he said at the InformationWeek 500 Conference.