Microsoft revamps security after high-profile breaches | Satya Nadella delivers new mandate Inbox

Under mounting pressure from a series of embarrassing security breaches, Microsoft will base a portion of senior executive compensation on progress toward security goals, install security chiefs in product groups, and bring together its major platforms and product teams in “engineering waves” to overhaul security. Microsoft “runs on trust and this trust must be earned and maintained,” says Microsoft Security leader Charlie Bell , above. Read more.

• In an internal memo to employees, obtained by GeekWire, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella delivered a new mandate: “If you’re faced with the tradeoff between security and another priority, your answer is clear: Do security.” Read the full memo.

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CoMotion at University of Washington , the UW's innovation arm, recently moved into a new headquarters space on the Seattle campus. We got a look inside.

Meet Venture Mechanics , a unique company based in the Seattle area that runs an incubator, event space, and more. It’s creating some of the connective tissue that’s needed in a healthy startup ecosystem. Read more.

Happy National Space Day. It’s a fitting time for Blue Origin and SpaceKids Global to announce a contest that will give eight kids the opportunity to tour Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket factory in Florida. Read more.

Who will win the robot trophies? Find out next week at the GeekWire Awards, May 9 in Seattle, as we honor the best in Pacific Northwest tech, with 50 finalists across more than a dozen categories. Grab your ticket today, and read up on all the potential winners.

Hot Links:

• Expedia Group shares were down following its first quarter earnings. The Seattle travel giant said a tech migration was going slower than expected. (Skift)
• The SEC ended its investigation into trades made by Expedia chairman Barry Diller on Activision Blizzard, days before it agreed to be acquired by Microsoft. (Wall Street Journal)?
• Peter Lee , president of Microsoft Research, and David Baker, director of the Institute for Protein Design, were named to the TIME100 Health list recognizing influential leaders. (LinkedIn)
• Fred Hutch Cancer Center and UW Medicine researchers received $400,000 for ovarian cancer research. (Fred Hutch)

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