Helen Chiang, the veteran Xbox staffer who got promoted in July and left the company amid mysterious circumstances just recently, has shared her side of the story–but her response doesn’t close the book on this saga.
In a LinkedIn post titled “Clarity is Kindess,” which itself is a reference to her former boss (and Xbox CEO) Asha Sharma’s much-ridiculed and cringey mantra, said it’s “not accurate” that she was “fired for a policy violation” as multiple reports said.
Chiang said she will not “turn this into a play-by-play” and reveal the specifics, but she wanted to speak out to dispel rumors. “What has been said about my departure, and what has been left unsaid, has created a picture of me that I hardly recognize.”
Xbox is undergoing a “reset” currently.
She went on to “set the record straight” by claiming she did not leak confidential company information to the press as some had speculated. “I have never communicated with any journalist outside the limited, company-authorized interviews I’ve done as part of my job,” she said, adding that this includes having no contact with any journalist who reached out to her before today to ask for her side of the story.
Chiang went on to say she did not leave Xbox to join a competitor. “You don’t spend two decades somewhere without developing a deep loyalty to the people, teams, and businesses you’ve helped build,” she said
“Xbox was never just another stop in my career. My end game was always to keep building here,” she said.
That may all be true, but it’s also unquestionable that people regularly spend lengthy periods of their career at one company, in high-level positions, and then move to other companies.
Third, Chiang said she “did not engage in discrimination, bullying, harassment, insider trading, embezzlement, or other fraudulent activity.”
“I stand by my record: both the results I delivered and the way I have treated people throughout my career. I won’t let speculation define my character or erase that record,” she said.
Chiang added that she did not leave Xbox because she was “passed over for a bigger role.” She said that since having children, she became more “intentional about how I define ambition and success.” She said she has purposefully not sought out bigger roles or jobs with more responsibilities; she said she hadn’t interviewed for a job since 2011.
“My reputation and results paved the way for the opportunities that followed. I went where the company believed I was needed and where I could have the greatest impact,” she said, adding that she did not ask to become Xbox’s first-ever COO.
“I believe in fairness, accountability, and holding ourselves to the standards we expect of others. Those standards only mean something when they’re applied consistently,” she said.
Chiang said she has “serious concerns” about how those standards were applied in her case, and she said those concerns “deserve to be taken seriously.”
“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. My story is about staying true to your core values, especially when it is hard,” she said. “That’s the legacy I hope to leave behind.”
Chiang’s statement doesn’t spell out the specific nature surrounding her departure from Xbox, so many will naturally want more answers. Those could come in time, as Chiang said this is “not the whole story.”
Another former Xbox executive, Shannon Loftis, commented on Chiang’s post to say she is “Team Helen all the way.” Loftis said she wonders who may have leaked the “false information” about Chiang and what their motivations may have been. In any event, she says it shows a “loss of moral character and ‘clarity’ in leadership at Xbox.”
“A real leadership team would have relentlessly pursued the ‘leaker’ and taken appropriate action because ‘confidential personnel matters’ actually are bases for defamation lawsuits,” she said. “It’s a clownshow up in there and I feel terrible for anyone that still has to deal with it.”
A spokesperson for Microsoft told Windows Central that the company does not “discuss individual personnel matters.”
According to a source speaking to Eurogamer, Chiang was “terminated for policy violations.” The Verge’s Tom Warren backed this up, saying Chiang was cut loose due to a “policy violation,” but the exact nature of that is unknown.
In July, Sharma announced that Chiang would become Xbox’s first-ever COO, with “end-to-end” responsibility for the financial future of Xbox’s content, hardware, platform, and services.
Chiang had worked at Microsoft for 20 years, in that time playing a key role in the creation of Xbox Live and later shepherding Mojang and the lucrative Minecraft franchise. As COO, Chiang was expected to “bring our businesses together under one operating model, making sure we make clear investment decisions, learn from our successes and failures, and hold ourselves accountable for results,” Sharma said.
For her part, Sharma said she will have an update to share on the COO position at Xbox at some point, but she didn’t divulge more.
The Xbox business was “not healthy” when Sharma took over, she said, and Chiang no doubt had a challenging road ahead of her. As for now, however, people can only speculate as to the real reason she left Xbox.
