{"id":41346,"date":"2022-06-08T02:46:59","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T02:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/microsoft-hololens-boss-alex-kipman-is-out-after-misconduct-allegations\/"},"modified":"2022-06-08T02:46:59","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T02:46:59","slug":"microsoft-hololens-boss-alex-kipman-is-out-after-misconduct-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/microsoft-hololens-boss-alex-kipman-is-out-after-misconduct-allegations\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft HoloLens boss Alex Kipman is out after misconduct allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div>\n<p id=\"HI0Zw6\"><em>Insider <\/em>is reporting that Microsoft&#8217;s Alex Kipman, who led the teams that developed the company&#8217;s HoloLens augmented reality headset and the Kinect motion controller for Xbox and serves as one of Microsoft&#8217;s top technical fellows, has resigned after allegations of verbal abuse and sexual harassment. <\/p>\n<p id=\"wnhHlF\">Microsoft wouldn&#8217;t immediately confirm or deny the report, but <em>GeekWire<\/em> has already corroborated it by obtaining an internal email from Microsoft cloud boss Scott Guthrie: &#8220;We have mutually decided that this is the right time for him to leave the company to pursue other opportunities,&#8221; he writes.  The memo, which you can read at <em>GeekWire<\/em>, says nothing about the allegations, and says Kipman will stay on for two more months to help with the transition.  It also details a reorganization for Kipman&#8217;s entire mixed reality division, with the hardware teams joining Panos Panay&#8217;s Windows + Devices org. <\/p>\n<p id=\"iPfVBA\">According to <em>Insider &#8216;<\/em>s sources, over 25 Microsoft employees contributed to an internal report about alleged misconduct by Kipman, including instances of unwanted touching, as well as one time he allegedly watched a lewd VR video in front of employees in the office.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-float-right\">\n<aside id=\"85TULR\"><q>Employees claim they were told not to leave women alone around Kipman<\/q><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"qiy9Xl\">Today&#8217;s report comes after a previous <em>Insider<\/em> report on May 25th, where dozens of employees told the publication about Kipman&#8217;s alleged behavior.  Three employees told <em>Insider<\/em> that they&#8217;d been warned not to leave women alone around Kipman.  When <em>Insider <\/em>reached out at that time, Microsoft wouldn&#8217;t confirm or deny specific allegations of misconduct against women, but did deny that Kipman had started being chaperoned by human resources personnel in meetings. <\/p>\n<p id=\"80r5iZ\">One former Microsoft executive was so distressed with Kipman&#8217;s behavior they suggested the COVID-19 outbreak actually made things better: \u201cThe best thing that happened, sadly, was the pandemic,\u201d they told Insider.  &#8220;So we never had to interact with him in person.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"iAHBiz\">Kipman hasn&#8217;t responded to <em>Insider<\/em>&#8216;s repeated requests for comment, and he hasn&#8217;t tweeted since May 23rd. <\/p>\n<p id=\"HJgAXE\">In February, Kipman responded to an earlier <em>Insider<\/em> report that suggested the HoloLens division was a mess, and that a HoloLens 3 might have been canceled, saying &#8220;Don&#8217;t believe what you read on the internet.&#8221;  Insider wasn&#8217;t the only publication suggesting some trouble in the division, though: <em>The Wall Street Journal <\/em>reported in January that over 70 Microsoft employees on the HoloLens team had left the company in 2021, with more than 40 joining Meta. <\/p>\n<p id=\"AHcHzY\">Microsoft was counting on a big win for HoloLens with the US Army, which ordered as many as 120,000 IVAS headsets for soldiers.  That order would be worth $ 21.88 billion to the company over 10 years, but the Army has delayed the deal, and a Pentagon audit wasn&#8217;t too bullish on the idea.  &#8220;Procuring IVAS without attaining user acceptance could result in wasting up to $ 21.88 billion in taxpayer funds to field a system that Soldiers may not want to use or use as intended,&#8221; reads part of an April 2022 report from the DoD&#8217;s Inspector General (pdf) .  However, Guthrie states in his memo that the Army did approve an operational test last month.<\/p>\n<p id=\"PIICkf\">Regardless of the state of the Hololens program, Kipman is out.<\/p>\n<p id=\"178Cwq\">Microsoft wouldn&#8217;t comment on the <em>Insider<\/em> report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Insider is reporting that Microsoft&#8217;s Alex Kipman, who led the teams that developed the company&#8217;s HoloLens augmented reality headset and the Kinect motion controller for Xbox and serves as one of Microsoft&#8217;s top technical fellows, has resigned after allegations of verbal abuse and sexual harassment. Microsoft wouldn&#8217;t immediately confirm or deny the report, but GeekWire &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/microsoft-hololens-boss-alex-kipman-is-out-after-misconduct-allegations\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Microsoft HoloLens boss Alex Kipman is out after misconduct allegations<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/ZnsjpDV1yUWt0lKEk84OtayUHMM=\/0x146:2040x1214\/fit-in\/1200x630\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/14130295\/vpavic_190131_3213_0151.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41346"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}