Xbox CEO Asha Sharma Overhauls Executive Team With Five New Leaders
- Sagar Mankar
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has made significant changes to the company's leadership structure, bringing in five new executives while also parting ways with two longtime Microsoft veterans.
Sharma, who stepped into the Xbox chief executive role in February 2026, came from Microsoft's CoreAI division, where she previously served as president. Since taking over, she has been gradually putting her stamp on the platform. That now includes reshaping the executive team around her. According to CNBC, four of the five new additions are coming directly from CoreAI, with the fifth arriving from Instacart, another company Sharma has ties to.
In an internal memo, Sharma was direct about why the changes were necessary. "We need to evolve how we work and how we are organized across our platform," she wrote. "Right now, it is too hard to ship impact quickly. We spend too much time inward instead of with the community, and we lack the depth we need in some of the fundamentals."
Here is a breakdown of the five new additions joining the Xbox leadership team:
Jared Palmer: Former CoreAI VP of product and GitHub SVP, Palmer joins as VP of Engineering and will also serve as a technical advisor to Sharma.
Tim Allen: Previously CoreAI VP of design and GitHub SVP of design and research, Allen will now lead design at Xbox, bringing together product design, engineering, research, and creative under one roof.
Jonathan McKay: A former Meta director who went on to lead growth for ChatGPT at OpenAI before heading growth at CoreAI, McKay takes on the head of growth role at Xbox.
Evan Chaki: Also from CoreAI, Chaki will lead a forward-deployed engineering group focused on simplifying development and cutting out repetitive work.
David Schloss: The one non-CoreAI addition, Schloss joins from Instacart where he spent over 11 years, most recently as senior director of product and growth. He will lead Xbox's subscription and cloud business.
On the other side of the equation, two longtime Microsoft employees are stepping away from their current posts.
Kevin Gammill, who spent over 15 years contributing to Xbox across various roles including corporate VP of gaming ecosystem, is leaving the company.
Roanne Sones, corporate VP of Xbox devices and ecosystem, will take a leave of absence after the summer before returning in an advisory role.
As per CNBC, both Sones and Gammill have clocked 24 years each at Microsoft, making these departures a notable end to long careers at the company.
Sharma is also elevating several existing Xbox veterans as part of the reshuffle.
Jason Ronald, a long-serving Microsoft figure, is being promoted and will now be accountable for Project Helix and the broader Xbox platform.
Jason Beaumont moves into a product leadership role and will serve as interim head of engineering.
Fatima Kardar steps into a newly formed Personalization org focused on search, discovery, and player assistance.
Jenn Creegan will lead the media business side of things.
The influx of CoreAI talent has naturally raised questions about whether this signals a bigger AI push coming to Xbox. According to IGN, however, Xbox's internal position is that these moves are about bringing in the best talent available, and that experience in Microsoft's AI division is simply viewed as part of a broader skill set. Sharma has spoken before about the company’s stance on AI, noting in her introductory memo that Microsoft Gaming "will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop.” She emphasized that games are “art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology.”
As per recent financials, Microsoft's gaming revenue dropped 7% in the three months ending March 31, 2026. Xbox content and services were down 5%, and hardware revenue fell by 33%.
That said, Sharma's early moves since joining have been well received by the Xbox community. The end of the divisive "This is an Xbox" marketing campaign, a rebrand dropping the Microsoft Gaming name, a refreshed Xbox logo, and a price cut to Game Pass Ultimate have all landed positively. The upcoming next-gen console project, known as Project Helix, is also generating excitement.
Sharma summed up the goal behind the reshuffle plainly in her memo: "Build a platform that is affordable, personal, and open by staying close to the work and the people we serve."
