The First Black Female President Of Xbox Has Stepped Down
Sarah Bond, the first Black female president of Xbox, has stepped down. Bond was promoted to Xbos president in October 2023, shortly after Microsoft closed its $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard, according to The Verge.
“Over the past four years, we’ve navigated that moment together and positioned the business for what comes next. We took on some of the biggest challenges this organization has ever faced and did it as one team,” Bond wrote in a LinkedIn post.
About Sarah Bond
Bond became the first Black woman to serve as president of Xbox, a major multinational gaming company. Bond joined Xbox in 2017 as a corporate vice president overseeing gaming business development and partnerships. While in this role, she led business development, partner management, and M&A for the Xbox Division and served as the executive sponsor of the Blacks @ Microsoft Employee Resource Group.
She then led the product and experience for game creators across all Microsoft software, including Xbox, Azure, and Microsoft 365, in her new role as Corporate Vice President at Xbox.
Before joining Xbox, she was an associate partner at McKinsey & Company. Then she moved to T-Mobile, serving as the chief of staff and senior vice president of corporate strategy and development. She graduated from Yale University as an economics graduate and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Xbox’s new shake-up
Microsoft’s long-term Xbox chief, Phil Spencer, left Microsoft in 2025 after the acquisition of Blizzard went on for longer than Microsoft had hoped.
Former Microsoft AI executive Asha Sharma was promoted to Executive Vice President and CEO of Microsoft Gaming. A decision that has shocked several Xbox fans, but not current and former Microsoft employee according to The Verge. “
I am stepping into work shaped by generations of artists, engineers, designers, writers, musicians, operators, and more who create worlds that have brought joy and deep personal meaning to hundreds of millions of players,” Sharma said in a press release.
Image: Bloomberg via Getty Images
