Former Microsoft veteran Peggy Johnson quits Magic Leap as CEO

San Francisco, Oct 27 Former Microsoft executive Peggy Johnson has stepped down at the CEO of augmented reality (AR) hardware company Magic Leap which she joined more than three year ago.

Magic Leap has announced the appointment of Ross Rosenberg as her replacement, effective November 1.

Johnson is stepping down as the company completes its pivot to the enterprise and moves toward expanding commercial adoption of its AR platform technology, it said in a statement.

“I am incredibly excited to begin working with the world class team at Magic Leap and want to thank Peggy for her leadership in guiding the company through a critical phase of its development,” said Rosenberg.

Johnson joined the struggling Magic Leap in July 2020 from Microsoft where she was Executive Vice President of Business Development.

She began her role as CEO in August after a 30-year career at the highest levels of technology and business at Microsoft and chip giant Qualcomm.

In her time at Magic Leap, Johnson positioned the company for its next phase of success including stabilising the company, launching Magic Leap 2, and establishing Magic Leap as a technology leader in enterprise AR.

As a result, Magic Leap has secured collaborations with some of the biggest players in technology including Nvidia, AMD, and Cisco, as well as licensing and contract manufacturing agreements with large technology companies.

“Having accomplished so much of what I set out to do at Magic Leap, I felt the time had come to transition leadership to a new CEO who can guide the company through its next period of growth,” said Johnson. “I’m incredibly proud of the leadership team we’ve built at Magic Leap and want to sincerely thank all of the employees for their work in helping to successfully reorient the company to the enterprise market.”

Rosenberg has served in senior executive leadership roles in private and public technology companies, including Bain Capital (software portfolio), Danaher, First Solar and Belden.