Microsoft Dynamics ERP executive Hal Howard departing MBS

Hal Howard announced on Twitter tonight that he has left his Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) role as corporate vice president for Microsoft Dynamics ERP R&D and as a direct report to MBS president Kirill Tatarinov.

The change is the second executive move in the last few weeks, following the appointment of Quentin Clark as a new "CVP of strategy" for MBS.

In his ten years with Dynamics ERP, Howard has developed a reputation in the Dynamics community as a straight-talking R&D leader. He speaks quickly and is known for taking on a wide range of questions from partners and users, with the ability to dive into technical details but also speak decisively about the direction of the products. His work history included reporting directly to Satya Nadella when Nadella was leading the Dynamics organization.

In responding to some tweets today, Howard clarified that he is not retiring. And he tells MSDynamicsWorld.com that he is unsure of his future plans at the moment. He says will be on vacation until August and will assess after that.

Howard's LinkedIn profile still lists Microsoft as his employer.  A move to another post within Microsoft would not be out of the ordinary for high level Microsoft managers. While there is no indication of a specific cause for the move, the introduction of a Dynamics CVP for "strategy", as well as the more over-arching "One Microsoft" mantra that seems to be driving job placements across the company could potentially have influenced the change.

Howard has overseen some critical changes in ...