Darren Laybourn
Corporate Vice President, Information and Content Experiences of Microsoft
Darren Laybourn is Corporate Vice President of Information and Content Experiences (ICE) since Dec 2016. He is responsible for the Start and New Tab experiences for the Edge Browser and MSN.com worldwide in 53 countries and 24 languages. His team curates content from 3000 of the best brands in the world and provide our partners with a good return in addition to traffic and more as part of the partnership. He has led this team since April 2015. Prior to his current role, Darren was CVP of Microsoft Storefronts, Oct 2014 – Dec 2016. In this role he was responsible for all Microsoft online consumer store experiences, marketing pages, and the MSN news content experiences. Lead the engineering teams and the operations teams, including a team spread across 54 countries providing local news curation, demand creation, and merchandising.
He was Corporate Vice President – Windows Phone CXE and Windows CXE, Oct 2012 – Oct 2014, responsible for all the updates of Windows phones and windows. Managed relationships with mobile operators and OEM’s on phones. Released interim releases of windows phones to support new chipsets, screen sizes, and enterprise scenarios. Delivered monthly quality and security updates across all versions of Windows. Darren was previously director of test for Windows Phone from 2008 to 2012. Prior to that role he held general management roles in Developer Division and Microsoft Business Solutions from 2001 to 2008. He was Executive Vice President for Great Plains Software responsible for research and development, professional services and IT from 1993 to 2001. Darren earned a Double BS in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Washington, 1980 – 1985.