Microsoft has terminated two employees, including Indian American Vaniya Agrawal, for disrupting an event marking the company’s 50th anniversary. The incident took place at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, where top executives including CEO Satya Nadella, and former CEOs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer were present.
On April 4, Ibtihal Aboussad interrupted a speech by Mustafa Suleyman, head of AI at Microsoft, calling for the company to stop working with the Israeli government. Later in the event, Vaniya Agrawal disrupted a Q&A session involving the company’s top leadership. Following these incidents, both employees were asked to leave the venue.
Agrawal later submitted her resignation, effective April 11, but Microsoft informed her that it was being accepted immediately. In her resignation email, which was accessed by media outlets, Agrawal said she could no longer be part of a company that supports what she called a “violent injustice”. She referred to reports alleging that Microsoft’s Azure cloud and AI technology are being used by the Israeli military for surveillance and operations.
Calling Microsoft a “digital weapons manufacturer”, she accused the company of violating its own human rights policies and urged her colleagues to hold Microsoft accountable.
Meanwhile, Aboussad was formally terminated for what the company described as “acts of misconduct”. Both employees were affiliated with a group called No Azure for Apartheid, which has been protesting against Microsoft’s business with the Israeli military.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Vaniya Agrawal completed her Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering from Arizona State University in 2019 with highest honours. She was one of 35 students selected for the prestigious Grace Hopper Scholarship in 2017. Earlier in her career, she worked in various roles including as a tea consultant and a medical assistant before entering the tech industry.
