Bill Laing

Corporate Vice President, Server and Cloud Division

Microsoft Corp.

Bill Laing is corporate vice president of Microsoft's Server and Cloud Division. As leader of the division, he is responsible for managing, delivering and documenting all elements of both Windows Azure and the Windows Server Platform. He is also responsible for virtualization, Remote Desktop Services, and Windows File Services delivery, customer engagement programs, and relationships with strategic hardware and software partners. He reports to Satya Nadella, president, Server and Tools Business.

Before joining Microsoft in 1999, Laing worked for Digital Equipment Corp. for 17 years where he was a corporate consulting engineer. During his career at Digital, Laing worked on OpenVMS, VAXcluster design and development, operating systems kernel development, file systems, transaction processing, software strategy, and systems research. He was also technical director of engineering in Europe and chief technology officer of AltaVista Internet Software Inc.

Laing held teaching and research posts at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where he worked on the EMAS operating system. He has a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and computer science and a Master of Philosophy in computer science, both from the University of Edinburgh. He lives with his wife in Washington state.