Microsoft Israel R&D chief Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk to step down after 13 years
Braverman-Blumenstyk will leave Microsoft at the end of the year after six and a half years leading its Israeli R&D center. During her tenure, the operation doubled in size and became a global hub for the company's AI and cybersecurity development.
Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk, one of the most senior Israeli executives at Microsoft, is stepping down after 13 years at the company, ending a tenure in which she helped build its cloud security business and more than doubled the size of its Israeli research and development operation.
Braverman-Blumenstyk, who serves as managing director of Microsoft's Israel R&D Center and chief technology officer of the company's Security Division, will remain in her positions until the end of the year. Microsoft said it will announce her successor at a later date.
Her departure marks a significant change at a company that has made its Israeli operation an increasingly important part of its global technology organization. During Braverman-Blumenstyk's six and a half years running the R&D center, its workforce doubled and expanded across six sites. The center also became one of Microsoft's strategic development centers worldwide, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
The scale of that operation is notable because much of the technology developed in Israel is not confined to the local market. The center currently develops core technologies and products used by millions of Microsoft customers and users around the world.
Braverman-Blumenstyk joined Microsoft 13 years ago to establish and lead the company's Cloud Security group in Israel. She later helped establish Microsoft's Cloud and AI Security Division and, following the creation of the company's unified Security Division, became its CTO.
That career path gave her a role in two of the technology areas that have become increasingly central to Microsoft's business: cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
Over the years, she contributed to the development and launch of several of Microsoft's flagship security products and played a role in expanding its cybersecurity business, which became one of the company's key growth engines.
Her departure therefore comes after a period in which the Israeli operation has evolved well beyond a conventional overseas development center. Under her leadership, Microsoft says it became a global development hub and a center of excellence for AI and cybersecurity.
The company did not provide a reason for her decision to step down.
In an email to employees, Braverman-Blumenstyk emphasized the people behind the operation she had led and the experience of running the center during a particularly difficult period.
"Looking back, what I feel most is gratitude for the people I have worked with, and immense pride in what we built together," she wrote.
She described her six and a half years leading the Israeli R&D center as "the part of my journey I am most proud of," and referred to the resilience of employees following October 7 and the challenges that followed.
"I leave with deep gratitude and great confidence that the best of Microsoft's Israel's R&D Center is yet to come," she wrote. "It has truly been the privilege of a lifetime."
Alongside her technology and management responsibilities, Braverman-Blumenstyk also worked to increase the representation of women in technology and leadership positions.
Microsoft has not yet said who will succeed her or how the leadership structure of its Israeli R&D organization will change.
Two weeks ago, Microsoft announced the appointment of Nati Amsterdam as General Manager of Microsoft Israel, bringing in a longtime Nvidia executive to lead the company’s sales and marketing operations in the country.
Amsterdam will take up the position in October, replacing Alon Haimovich, who announced in May that he would step down after four years as country general manager and pursue a new professional path focused on artificial intelligence.
