Google has hired ex-Microsoft executive Javier Soltero to run its G Suite business, which includes Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive and other productivity apps.

Soltero most recently served as corporate vice president for Cortana, Microsoft's digital assistant, and left the company late last year. He previously held various roles, including overseeing Microsoft Outlook.

As vice president of G Suite, a new role for the company, Soltero will report to Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, the company said in an email on Monday. Previously, Prabhakar Raghavan led Google Apps, before shifting to lead the company's advertising and commerce products.

Kurian, who joined Google in January after over two decades at Oracle, has been on a hiring spree in attempts to make the company more competitive with Amazon and Microsoft. Last week, Google hired SAP executive Brigette McInnis-Day to lead the cloud unit's human resources department.

Soltero joined Microsoft in 2014 as part of the software maker's acquisition of Acompli, which he co-founded and led. Prior to that, he held various leadership roles at VMware.

In July, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company plans to triple the sales force in cloud, and called it a key growth driver for parent company Alphabet.

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