John ‘JG’ Chirapurath’s Sudden Departure from Microsoft

When Julia White left Microsoft as corporate VP for Azure, server and developer tools marketing in January to become CMO and an executive board member at SAP, Microsoft tapped John “JG” Chirapurath to fill her role.

Chirapurath was a logical choice, given he led one of the group’s fastest growing businesses, Azure Data and AI. But six months later, Chirapurath followed White to SAP, which recruited him to become chief marketing and solutions officer for its Business Technology Platform (BTP).

“SAP is [in] the middle of a fantastic transformation,” he said. “The way you have to transform is with cloud, and cloud growth is really coming from the application end. And that’s what SAP does. It literally is the world’s largest business software company. And I just thought that the opportunity to really participate and continue my love for the space was at SAP.”