Robert Youngjohns, 56, most recently CEO of a sales-management software company called Callidus, has been named president, North American sales and marketing, and corporate vice president of Microsoft. Youngjohns will be in charge of 8,500 sales people and report to Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner.

Bill Veghte last held this position at Microsoft. Early this year, he moved to Kevin Johnson's Platforms and Services Division in charge of the new Windows Business Group marketing organization.

Johnson, too, held the North American sales lead before becoming head of global sales and then president of the Windows division.

Youngjohns was at Sun Microsystems for a decade before moving to Callidus. He spent 18 years at IBM before that.