Peggy Johnson, Microsoft's new
Peggy Johnson, Microsoft’s new executive vice president of business development

Microsoft just confirmed that it has hired Peggy Johnson, a 24-year Qualcomm veteran, as the Redmond company’s new executive vice president of global business development, reporting to CEO Satya Nadella.

“Peggy shares our worldview and knows what it takes to drive new growth in mobility and the cloud,” Nadella said in a news release. “Her experience uniquely positions her to lead Microsoft’s business development efforts, and she will be a great addition to our senior leadership team.”

She’ll start Sept. 1 in the newly created role. Microsoft says Johnson’s responsibilities will include “driving strategic business deals and partnerships across various industries with key customers, strategic innovation partners, OEMs, key accounts, 3rd party publishers and industry influencers.”

Johnson represents the first high-level executive hire by Nadella since he became CEO of the company six months ago. Microsoft has not yet filed documents with the SEC disclosing Johnson’s compensation package.

During her tenure at Qualcom, Johnson started as engineer for Qualcomm Wireless Business Solutions, working her way up to the position of vice president of technology. Most recently she oversaw the semiconductor company’s strategic partnerships and its initiatives to commercialize new technologies.

News of Johnson’s hiring by Microsoft first leaked in late July, as reported by Re/code, but Microsoft didn’t confirm the hiring until today.

Update: As part of the changes, Eric Rudder, the company’s executive vice president of advanced strategy, will be shedding some of the interim responsibilities he assumed on a temporary basis when former Microsoft Skype executive Tony Bates left the company in June.

Johnson will assume business development duties from Rudder. In addition, the company’s newly named Developer Evangelism and Experiences team (formerly Developer and Platform Evangelism), led by Steve Guggenheimer, will shift from Rudder’s organization to Microsoft’s sales, marketing and services group (SMSG), reporting to Microsoft COO Kevin Turner.

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