Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Panos Panay, the always-pumped Microsoft chief product officer and face of the Surface brand of hardware, has been appointed to Sonos’ board of directors. Sonos board chairman Mike Volpi said in a press release that “Panay’s comprehensive background in developing tightly-integrated hardware and software platforms, coupled with a track record of innovation in product design and development, makes him an exciting addition to the Sonos board.”
It might not be worth reading too much into a tech executive serving on the board of another tech company without a change in job status. But it’s hard not to think about how odd of a position this puts Panay in: on the one hand, with Microsoft, things seem to be going well with Google, as the Surface…