Microsoft has made a move designed to step up its sales and marketing game in North America, by adding fresh blood to the company. In this sense, the company's executive leadership team will be joined by Robert Youngjohns. In his new role, Youngjohns will be the president of North America Sales & Marketing as well as corporate vice president of Microsoft. The former head of North America Sales & Marketing, Bill Veghte will not be easy to match, as he set quite high standards.

Bill Veghte is now Corporate Vice President, Windows Business Group, overseeing the whole Windows Business. But when he was at the helm of the North American business, Microsoft accounted for a growth of 2 billion in top-line revenue in just three years. Still, Youngjohns is a veteran with over 30 years of experience in sales.

"We are excited to welcome Robert to our team. His deep background and expertise in the technology sector and his dedication to customers are tremendous assets for his new role as head of our highly specialized and successful North America sales and marketing organization", revealed Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft.

Youngjohns will take over his new role starting with December 3, 2007. The new resident of North America Sales & Marketing has an impressible background that involves some of the heavyweights of the high-tech industry. Before joining Microsoft, Youngjohns was president and chief executive officer of Callidus Software, but he also worked for Sun Microsystems as executive vice president of Global Sales and for IBM in a variety of roles.

"Together with its partners, Microsoft is a world-class selling organization, and I look forward to continuing to build on this success in my new role. There are very few places that offer the chance to work across such a broad range of technologies. It is a tremendous opportunity, and I am excited to work with this team and with Microsoft's customers and partners", Youngjohns added.