Quentin Clark joins Microsoft Business Solutions as strategy chief

Quentin Clark, formerly Microsoft's corporate vice president in the data platform group, has joined Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS), the parent group for Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM, as the new corporate vice president of strategy, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed.

Clark was rumored last month to have been set for this move to MBS as the Cloud and Enterprise (C&E) leadership team was reshuffled by the new executive vice president, Scott Guthrie.

As a CVP, Clark joins the upper level of Microsoft Dynamics managers reporting to MBS executive vice president Kirill Tatarinov. Other CVPs in Tatarinov's organization include Hal Howard (Dynamics ERP), Bob Stutz (Dynamics CRM), Neil Holloway (MBS Sales and Operations), and Wayne Morris (MBS Solutions Marketing). Another notable senior member of the team is Mike Ehrenberg, a Microsoft technical fellow and CTO for MBS.

As we wrote earlier, Clark seems like a unique addition to the Dynamics leadership team given his experience with all things related to Microsoft's data and BI products and strategy. Unfortunately, he does not appear to be scheduled to speak to Dynamics partners at WPC 2014, though we'll keep our eyes open.

The title "CVP of Strategy" doesn't hint at much in terms of Clark's specific goals or areas of focus in the new role. It also remains to be seen how he might influence the product direction apart from the product management, marketing, and R&D organizations. We do know that MBS has invested in increasing the rigor of its industry-focused strategy recently, and perhaps Clarks role ...