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In September 2024, Kirsten Paust left Fortive for a corporate vice president role at Microsoft, Seattle video-creation startup Pictory named Scott Rockfeld its chief marketing officer, and Starbucks North America CEO Michael Conway announced his retirement. These are historical personnel changes, not confirmation of the executives’ roles today.
Kirsten Paust moved from Fortive to Microsoft
Fortive senior vice president Kirsten Paust joined Microsoft as a corporate vice president focused on continuous improvement. In her September 2024 announcement, she described an effort to build a continuous-improvement movement at Microsoft, simplify work and use AI to support organizational transformation.
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Paust brought experience from Everett-based Fortive and its predecessor, Danaher. GeekWire reported that she had spent about eight years as a Fortive executive and more than 12 years at Danaher before Fortive was spun out in 2016. She also worked on Fortive’s partnership with Seattle startup studio Pioneer Square Labs, connecting her industrial-operations background with the region’s startup ecosystem. GeekWire’s account of the appointment provides this career background.
Microsoft had separately announced that Carolina Dybeck Happe would become executive vice president and chief operating officer, with responsibilities that included continuous business-process improvement and accelerating the company’s AI transformation. That announcement offers organizational context, but it does not establish Paust’s reporting line or make her a member of Microsoft’s executive leadership team. Microsoft’s announcement describes Dybeck Happe’s remit.
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Paust’s move put an operating discipline associated with Fortive’s industrial businesses into a major software company’s AI-era transformation effort. The available announcements describe her intended focus, but do not specify her team size, compensation or exact place in Microsoft’s reporting structure.
Pictory named Scott Rockfeld chief marketing officer
Seattle video-creation startup Pictory hired Scott Rockfeld as chief marketing officer, according to GeekWire’s September 2024 report. Rockfeld had worked as a fractional CMO in the Seattle area, served as CMO at children’s storytelling app company Novel Effect and spent about 18 years at Microsoft.
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That background gives Pictory an executive with experience marketing products at both a large technology company and smaller organizations. In general, a CMO can help define product positioning, build brand awareness and establish repeatable ways to reach customers. Those are possible functions of the role, not confirmed priorities for Pictory: the report did not disclose the company’s marketing plans or connect the hire to a product launch, fundraising or staffing change.
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- Physical gift cards are delivered active via mail.
Starbucks’ North America CEO Michael Conway announced retirement
Michael Conway announced his retirement in September 2024 after roughly five months as Starbucks’ CEO for North America. That was his tenure in the regional role, not his full time at Starbucks: the company’s announcement described a Starbucks career spanning about 11 years. Starbucks created the North America CEO position in a leadership restructuring announced in March 2024, with Conway due to take the role on April 1. Starbucks’ restructuring announcement set out the appointment.
Starbucks said it would not backfill the North America CEO job. Instead, Sara Trilling, who led North America retail operations, would report directly to global CEO Brian Niccol. Conway was to remain as an executive adviser through the end of 2024. His departure was recorded in a Starbucks filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission; Reuters also reported the succession plan and advisory period in its coverage of his retirement.
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Conway had previously held roles including group president for International and Channel Development and leadership of Starbucks’ Canada and licensed-store businesses. The retirement came as Niccol began a turnaround effort centered on store execution, service speed and restoring the coffeehouse experience. Starbucks described those priorities in its “Back to Starbucks” plan. The timing does not establish that the plan caused Conway’s retirement.
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How to read these moves
The three changes involve different companies and circumstances; they do not, by themselves, establish a shared trend. Paust’s move was an executive transition from an industrial technology company to Microsoft, Rockfeld’s appointment was a startup marketing hire, and Starbucks changed its regional reporting structure while declining to refill Conway’s post. All were reported or announced in September 2024; the sources cited here do not establish the executives’ employment status or roles in 2026.
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