Microsoft Israel R&D head Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk stepping down

Microsoft Israel R&D head Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk will be stepping down after a 13-year tenure, during which she expanded the US tech giant’s cloud and cybersecurity business in the country.

Braverman-Blumenstyk, who serves as managing director of Microsoft Israel R&D and CTO of the tech giant’s security division, will leave by the end of the year. A successor to lead Microsoft’s Israel R&D Center will be announced at a later date.

The US tech giant says Braverman-Blumenstyk “played a key role in the growth of the company’s cybersecurity business, helping establish it as one of Microsoft’s key growth engines.”

“During her tenure, the number of employees doubled, across six sites, and the center was repeatedly recognized as one of the best places to work in Israel,” Microsoft says in a statement. “Today, the Israel R&D Center develops core technologies and products used by millions of customers and users around the world.”

Microsoft Israel’s R&D operations are among the tech giant’s biggest in the world alongside those in Silicon Valley and Boston, and were its first outside the US. Microsoft was one of the pioneers in setting up R&D operations in Israel in 1991.

Months ago, Microsoft’s Israel general manager, Alon Haimovich, stepped down, following findings from an internal review into the alleged unethical use of the US tech giant’s Azure cloud platform by Israel’s military. Microsoft recently named Nvidia Israel senior executive Nati Amsterdam as Haimovich’s successor.