Microsoft has nominated Stripe co-founder and president John Collison to its board, the company disclosed on Wednesday in its annual proxy statement. The same filing asks shareholders to approve a $90.6m pay package for chief executive Satya Nadella, down about 6% from $96.4m a year earlier, The Information reported.
Collison, 36, would take one of two seats opening at Microsoft’s annual meeting on 8 December. LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman said in June that he would leave the board. The proxy also shows that Disney chief financial officer Hugh Johnston, who chairs the board’s audit and finance committee, is not seeking re-election, GeekWire reported. Both men joined the board in 2017.
With the two departures and Collison’s arrival, the board would shrink from 13 members to 12. Former EY chief executive Carmine Di Sibio, appointed in May, stands for a shareholder vote for the first time. The meeting will be held online only.
Who Collison is
Collison was born in Ireland and started Stripe with his brother, Patrick, in 2010. Businesses using Stripe processed $1.9tn in payments in 2025, according to the company. The proxy lists no other public company boards for him and classes him as independent.
“[Collison] brings extensive entrepreneurial and operational experience, along with deep expertise in technology,” Microsoft said in the filing, GeekWire reported.
The two companies already work together. Stripe helps run Copilot Checkout, which Microsoft launched in January so US users of its AI assistant can buy from Etsy sellers and other shops inside the chat. GeekWire noted that the proxy does not mention any business between the two companies.
Stripe is building payments for AI agents. It has teamed up with Sierra on card payments during agent calls and sealed its OpenRouter deal in August. Collison has argued that agentic commerce will remake online shopping.
He has also interviewed Nadella. On Stripe’s Cheeky Pint podcast last November, Collison asked him for advice on building a platform for agent shopping. Nadella said the key was an easy button for small merchants.
“Going to a small merchant and saying, ‘Hey, you go stand up an MCP server, do this protocol, that protocol,’ what’s the easy button?” Nadella said.
Nadella’s pay, and the Xbox drag
Falling revenue at Xbox pulled down Nadella’s bonus, even as every other part of the business met or beat its targets, according to The Information. The filing records that Xbox content and services revenue fell 5% in the year. His target performance stock award stayed at $50m, a level unchanged since 2022.
The cash incentive paid out at 129.03% of target on financial results and 156.67% on operational goals, the proxy shows. The Information noted that Nadella remains among the highest-paid chief executives. TNW has not independently checked the $90.6m total against the filing’s pay tables.
In June, Microsoft was considering an Xbox spin-off as the division’s margins fell to 3%. Microsoft’s shares are up 27% over six months, and the company is worth close to $4tn, Semafor reported.
Shareholders vote on the board slate and on Nadella’s pay on 8 December.