Microsoft Corp. announced Thursday that Jon Roskill has been named corporate vice president of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group, effective July 1.

Roskill is replacing Allison Watson, who has led the Microsoft Partner Group since 2002. Watson will assume Roskills former post as corporate vice president of the Business & Marketing Organization in the United States, reporting to Robert Youngjohns, senior vice president of North America Sales and Marketing.

In his new role Roskill will focus on helping the partner community capitalize on new areas of growth, such as unified communications, virtualization and cloud computing.

He will report to Vahé Torossian, corporate vice president of the Worldwide Small and Midmarket Solutions & Partners (SMS&P) Group. Torossian is an 18-year Microsoft veteran who recently joined SMS&P from his previous role overseeing Microsofts sales, marketing and operations in Central and Eastern Europe.

Our customers are relying more and more on our partners,” said Microsoft COO Kevin Turner in a press statement. Jon deeply understands the critical factors a customer goes through in making IT buying decisions. He will leverage his depth of knowledge in his new role, and Im confident he will ensure that our partners continue to win and grow in the marketplace.”

As corporate vice president of the Business & Marketing Organization in the United States, Roskill led cross-company marketing campaigns for Microsofts commercial products such as Windows and Microsoft Office, and played a major role in bringing the companys cloud computing efforts to market over the past year.

Roskill and Watson will address partners at the companys annual Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, July 11-15, in Washington, D.C.