Following Stephen Elop's departure from Microsoft, Surface VP Panos Panay is stepping into a much bigger, far-reaching role at the company. Panay will now lead engineering on all "premium" Microsoft hardware, according to ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley. Aside from Surface, that also includes Xbox, Lumia (what's left of it, anyway), the Microsoft Band wearable, and HoloLens. Panay will steer clear of duties that aren't directly tied to engineering or design, so he won't have any hand in finance or supply chain decisions around those devices, the report notes.

Panay's specific new title isn't yet known, and the Windows and Devices groups are now both led by Terry Myerson. But when it comes to shaping Microsoft's future, flagship devices meant to showcase Windows 10, it sounds like Panay is now the guy. The shift in Panay's role comes after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced a significant reorganization of his company's executive ranks last month. That shuffle saw the exit of Elop, Mark Penn, and Jo Harlow, a key executive from Microsoft's phones business after the Nokia acquisition. The company's consolidation efforts extend to software, with ZDNet reporting that Outlook, Exchange, OneDrive, and SharePoint will be more closely aligned moving forward.