Former Microsoft Dynamics Chief Kirill Tatarinov Appointed President and CEO of Citrix

Kirill Tatarinov, former Microsoft executive vice president for Microsoft Business Solutions has been appointed president and CEO of Citrix and will join its board of directors, effective January 25. The company made the announcement today.

The move follows Tatarinov's departure from Microsoft (or at least the loss of his leadership role) in June 2015 in the midst of a major reorganization at Microsoft that saw the MBS group broken up and slotted into larger R&D, marketing, sales, and partner organizations.

Tatatrinov lead MBS for much of his 13 years at Microsoft, overseeing its growth to a "nearly $2 billion business" according to Satya Nadella at the time of his departure. In that time he proved himself to have both leadership skills and staying power within the Microsoft organizational structure. In 2013, he and MBS came out of another reorg largely unaffected, surprising many onlookers.

The move to lead Citrix is a step up in terms of business size. The company has over a $10 billion market cap and higher revenues than the Dynamics product line. He takes over from interim president and CEO Robert Calderoni, who continues his role as Executive Chairman on the Citrix Board of Directors.

In Tatarinov, Citrix gets a seasoned software industry executive who has demonstrated an ability to both speak intelligently (and at times, with some caginess) to analysts and the press, as well as oversee broad executive teams, like the one within MBS during his tenure.