03:27 PM EDT, 09/12/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Microsoft ( MSFT ) has appointed Carolina Dybeck Happe to the newly created role of chief operations officer.

Dybeck Happe will join the technology giant's senior leadership team and report to Chief Executive Satya Nadella, who announced the appointment to Microsoft ( MSFT ) employees Thursday, according to a blog post on the company's website.

"Carolina will partner with the (senior leadership team) to help us drive continuous business process improvement across all our organizations and accelerate our company-wide (artificial intelligence) transformation, increasing value to customers and partners," Nadella said.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) shares were up 0.7% in Thursday late-afternoon trade and have risen 13% so far this year.

Dybeck Happe has previously served as chief financial officer of industrial conglomerate General Electric, which announced plans in 2021 to split into three independent entities. It spun off global medical technology firm GE Healthcare (GEHC) in the beginning of 2023 and completed the separation of its renewable energy business, GE Vernova (GEV), earlier this year. Aviation-focused GE Aerospace trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the GE ticker.

Rahul Ghai become CFO at GE in September 2023, replacing Dybeck Happe.

"I've come to admire Carolina through her work as a global business leader, including most recently her role in leading GE's historic turnaround," Nadella said Thursday.

The commerce + ecosystems organization in cloud + AI, the Microsoft Digital organization in experiences + devices, and the Microsoft Business Operations organization in finance will report to Dybeck Happe, Nadella said.

In July, Microsoft ( MSFT ) logged stronger-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results, though intelligent cloud revenue missed Wall Street's estimates.

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