Veteran Microsoft Dynamics 365 / CRM manager Bill Patterson departs for Salesforce

Microsoft has parted ways with one of the longest serving managers in the Dynamics program. Bill Patterson, a veteran of CRM at Microsoft, revealed he has joined Salesforce as senior vice president for service engagement as of last week.

Salesforce was the logical suitor for Patterson. According to one source, Salesforce recruited him aggressively, flying him to San Francisco by private jet some time ago to discuss the role. Patterson is also said to have a good relationship with Salesforce executive Bob Stutz, who used to be Patterson's boss at Microsoft before leaving in 2015.

For veterans of the Dynamics CRM space, Patterson had been a consistent presence in Microsoft's management structure. He served under several CRM leaders and for years was one of the notable voices on the CRM team. His visibility had diminished somewhat in the last few years, coinciding with his assignment as the head of the Parature team, the departure of Stutz, and Parature's subsequent retirement.

At the time Stutz left Microsoft, many in the partner channel felt Patterson was the best choice to lead the CRM team, and several stated privately that if he wasn't promoted he would likely be courted by a competitor. The leadership role went to Jujhar Singh, the R&D leader under Stutz. Singh was also reportedly closer to Microsoft executive vice president of Cloud and Enterprise, Scott Guthrie. Singh recently left the CRM team, and Microsoft has not confirmed a new leader for CRM following the re-organization that (...