Mikhail Parakhin departs Microsoft for Canadian e-commerce big hitter Shopify and new CTO challenge

Mikhail Parakhin has joined Shopify and taken on the role of Chief Technology Officer. 

He arrives from Microsoft where he served as CEO, Advertising and Web Services.

In an online post, the company said: “Mikhail's career is a testament to his ability to build critical infrastructure and invent key technology that has made a significant impact on the broader tech industry.”

“Specifically, he led Microsoft's AI advancement, building consumer and enterprise facing products like Copilot. Between stints at Microsoft, Mikhail was Chief Technology Officer at Yandex, where he developed multiple search engines, cloud services, digital assistants, and ClickHouse.”

It added: “As CTO, Mikhail will oversee our engineering and data organisations and push Shopify to the cutting edge, not just in ML and AI, but in everything we’re building to make commerce better for everyone. And we can’t wait.”

2024 RTIH INNOVATION AWARDS

ML and AI are key focus areas for the sixth edition of the RTIH Innovation Awards, which is now open for entries.

The awards, sponsored by CADS, 3D Cloud, Retail Technology Show 2025, and Business France, celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

It’s free to enter and you can do so across multiple categories.

Key 2024 dates

Friday, 25th October: Award entry deadline 

Tuesday, 29th October: 2024 shortlist revealed

30th October-6th November: Judging days

Thursday, 21st November: Winners announced at the 2024 RTIH Innovation Awards ceremony, to be held at RIBA’s 66 Portland Place HQ in Central London.