Microsoft: Big job for Hillary Clintons strategist

Microsoft has hired Mark Penn, controversial chief strategist of Hillary Clintons 2008 presidential campaign, to a new post as Corporate Vice President for Strategic and Special Projects.

The appointment of Penn, who will frequently travel to Redmond from Washington, D.C., was announced the day Microsoft reported its first quarterly loss in 26 years as a public company.

Steve Ballmer (AP Photo)

Mark has an incredible background in research, demographics, marketing and positioning and a proven history in developing unique insights that drive success, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement.

Penn was an incredibly polarizing presence in Clintons dysfunctional 2008 campaign, which lost its big lead in the polls en route to a come-from-ahead defeat at the hands of Barack Obama. He repeatedly clashed with campaign manager Patty Solis Doyle.

A conflict of interest forced Penn to step down from the campaign. As head of the Burson Marsteller public affairs firm, he worked backstage for the government of Colombia in its drive for ratification of a bilateral trade agreement with the United States. Clinton was speaking out against the treaty.

Penn will report directly to Ballmer. He will head a sort of corporate SWAT team that will develop strategies to sell Microsoft consumer products, particularly Bing the Microsoft search engine.

You can say fairly politics and technology have been my two passions since I was 12, Penn told the Wall Street Journal.

Penn has headed Burson Marsteller since 2005. The firm was made famous for advising Union Carbide after its gas leak killed 1,500 people in the Indian city of Bhopal.

It has recently represented such firms as Countrywide Financ! ial a k ey player in the home loan crisis and Blackwater Financial, the controversial U.S. contractor blamed for deaths of Iraqi civilians.

In the Northwest (long before Penns time), it helped set up the B.C. Forest Alliance: The alliance was an astroturf group to defend British Columbias timber industry during a time of international controversy over the provinces vast clearcuts.

In the revolving door of politics and public affairs, Penn will be succeeded by Donald Baer, a former Clinton administration communications director.