Eric Rudder will serve as interim leader of Microsoft's Business Development and Evangelism while continuing in his current role.

The claim is that Eric Rudder serves as interim leader of Business Development and Evangelism while keeping his existing role. True: Microsoft records or contemporaneous reports show that Rudder acted as interim head of BD and Evangelism after March 2014 while keeping his existing role. Mostly true: he served as interim leader, with a minor difference in title or scope. Mostly false: he took on only part of the remit, or gave up his current role to do so. False: positive evidence that someone else was named instead, or that the arrangement never took effect.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Microsoft confirms Bates, Reller to exit company - CNET CNET · 3 March 2014

   “Bates will be replaced by Eric Rudder, currently executive vice president of advanced strategy, on an interim basis.”

2. E2 Microsoft confirms departure of senior execs iTnews · 5 March 2014

   “The former chief executive of Skype, Tony Bates, will also step down, with Eric Rudder to warm his seat temporarily while a replacement is sought.”

3. E3 Facts About Microsoft Microsoft News (news.microsoft.com) Own record

   “Eric Rudder is the interim leader, focusing on key partnerships, especially our innovation partners (OEMs, silicon vendors, key developers, Yahoo, etc.) and our broad work on evangelism and developer outreach.”

Contemporaneous independent reports say Eric Rudder, then executive vice president of advanced strategy, replaced Tony Bates on an interim basis (E2) and would hold the seat temporarily while a replacement was sought (E3). Microsoft's own page names Rudder as interim leader for key partnerships, evangelism and developer outreach (E4). This confirms the interim appointment. However, none of the evidence states outright that he kept his advanced strategy role, and E4 words the remit somewhat differently from "Business Development and Evangelism", so the verdict is mostly true rather than fully true.