Microsoft’s head of comms is leaving after almost 20 years
Microsoft’s head of comms is leaving after almost 20 years
微软公关负责人即将离职，结束近 20 年的任期
Frank Shaw is leaving Microsoft after 17 years as chief communications officer. In an internal note to his team, Shaw says he’s “decided it is time for me to move on and try new things,” after supporting Microsoft’s communications for 29 years — nearly 20 years as a Microsoft employee plus time at the Waggener Edstrom agency (now We. Communications) before that.
在担任微软首席公关官 17 年后，Frank Shaw 即将离职。在一封发给团队的内部备忘录中，Shaw 表示他“决定是时候继续前进，尝试一些新的事物了”。他为微软的公关工作服务了 29 年——其中近 20 年是作为微软员工，在此之前他还曾在 Waggener Edstrom 代理公司（现为 We. Communications）工作。
Shaw has been at the heart of Microsoft’s communications since 1997, helping the company navigate multiple Windows and Office releases, CEO transitions, the all-important bet on cloud, and huge acquisitions like the $26.2 billion LinkedIn purchase in 2016 and the $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023.
自 1997 年以来，Shaw 一直处于微软公关工作的核心，协助公司度过了多次 Windows 和 Office 的发布、CEO 的更迭、至关重要的云业务转型，以及诸如 2016 年以 262 亿美元收购 LinkedIn 和 2023 年以 690 亿美元收购动视暴雪等重大并购案。
He’s well-respected across the public relations industry, and PRWeek recently named him number one on its 2026 list of the most powerful people in the PR industry. Internally at Microsoft he’s also well-respected among executives, and has built up a reputation for being direct, but respectful. Many employees have told me over the years that they always fear an email from him for misspeaking or accidentally leaking product plans.
他在公关行业备受推崇，PRWeek 最近将他列为 2026 年公关行业最具影响力人物榜单的第一名。在微软内部，他同样深受高管们的尊重，并以直率但不失礼貌的行事风格著称。多年来，许多员工曾告诉我，他们总是害怕收到他的邮件，担心自己说错话或不小心泄露了产品计划。
He’s earned a reputation outside of the company as someone who is always willing to argue with critics, correct stories, and defend Microsoft. In 2013, he ripped into Apple and the press for daring to compare iWork to Office, and he regularly appears on X to shoot down rumors or to correct information about Microsoft. At Microsoft’s 50th birthday party last year, he appeared onstage to read out a series of hilarious mean tweets about his PR activities.
在公司外部，他以乐于与批评者辩论、纠正报道并捍卫微软而闻名。2013 年，他曾猛烈抨击苹果公司和媒体，因为他们竟敢将 iWork 与 Office 相提并论。他经常在 X（原 Twitter）上现身，驳斥谣言或纠正有关微软的不实信息。在去年微软 50 周年庆典上，他甚至登台朗读了一系列关于他公关工作的搞笑“恶评”。
I’ve been covering Microsoft for more than 25 years, and I first encountered Shaw as a naive teenager trying to get into blogging. I would post confidential Microsoft documents online at my time at Neowin, or blog about early Windows features before the company was ready to announce them. That regularly got me into trouble with Microsoft’s army of lawyers, and even got Neowin knocked offline for 24 hours.
我报道微软已经超过 25 年了，我第一次见到 Shaw 时，还是个试图涉足博客圈的懵懂少年。当时我在 Neowin 工作，经常在网上发布微软的机密文件，或者在公司宣布之前就撰写关于早期 Windows 功能的博客。这经常让我陷入与微软庞大律师团队的纠纷中，甚至导致 Neowin 被迫下线了 24 小时。
Despite there being a great deal of mutual respect between us, I’ve upset Shaw plenty of times over the decades, leading to some heated debates or disagreements over stories. Still to this day, when Frank calls my phone, I brace myself, knowing Microsoft is either about to announce something crazy or I’ve upset the company again.
尽管我们之间有着深厚的相互尊重，但在过去的几十年里，我还是多次惹恼过 Shaw，导致我们在报道上发生过激烈的辩论或分歧。直到今天，当 Frank 打来电话时，我依然会做好心理准备，因为我知道要么是微软又要宣布什么疯狂的消息，要么就是我又惹麻烦了。
But what’s he doing next? Shaw isn’t retiring just yet, but he tells me he’s going to take a well-earned break before moving on to “other things” he wants to do. Could that be PR for an AI startup? Baking sourdough bread professionally? In a manner befitting a communications professional: He refuses to tell me.
那么他接下来要做什么呢？Shaw 还没有退休，但他告诉我，他打算先休息一段时间，然后再去追求他想做的“其他事情”。会是为一家 AI 初创公司做公关吗？还是去专业地烘焙酸种面包？以一种符合公关专业人士身份的方式：他拒绝告诉我。
Microsoft isn’t naming a replacement for Shaw yet, as he’s not leaving the company until the end of the year. “I’ll be here through the end of the calendar year, and the company is working through next steps, look for an update in the next few weeks,” says Shaw in a note to his team.
微软尚未任命 Shaw 的继任者，因为他要到今年年底才会离开公司。Shaw 在给团队的备忘录中写道：“我将工作到今年年底，公司正在制定后续计划，请期待未来几周的更新。”