Microsoft's COO Helen Chiang was fired from Xbox a few weeks ago, after 27 years of top-level leadership spent across the org, most prolifically at Minecraft.

The removal was abrupt and somewhat confusing on the face of it. Chiang was widely respected across the Microsoft stack and is a trusted figure, described to me as "by the book" by our own sources. When it emerged that she had been fired for "policy violations," it added an unexpected twist that left us with more questions than answers, ultimately.

Now, Helen Chiang has responded to the incident on LinkedIn, titled "Clarity is Kindness," which is a comment Xbox CEO Asha Sharma made to the WSJ while discussing the health of Microsoft's gaming business recently.

There has been some speculation about my abrupt departure from Microsoft, including claims that I was “fired for a policy violation”. That’s not accurate," Chiang writes, "silence should not be mistaken for agreement. What has been said about my departure, and what has been left unsaid, has created a picture of me that I hardly recognize. It’s important to me to set the record straight."

In the full post shared below, Chiang denies that she leaked information, sought employment at Microsoft competitors, engaged in insider trading, bullying, or embezzlement, or that she left because she didn't get the CEO job. She says that she always hoped to stay at Microsoft and "keep building," and this departure wasn't what she envisioned.

" I share this because I don’t want my departure reduced to an inaccurate story about incompetence, ambition for the next big job, or a Nelson-level scandal."

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