SAN FRANCISCO — Eric Brown has left Microsoft to join social software company Lithium as VP of communications.

Brown joined the Microsoft-owned Skype in January 2013 as its then-CMO Elisa Steele was restructuring the department to enable more content development and internal engagement. Steele left Skype in December to become CMO of Jive Software just as Microsoft was undergoing a major company-wide restructuring.

Since those changes, Brown’s role at Microsoft had been broadened to general communications for Skype, Lync, Outlook.com SkyDrive and IE. Seattle-based Adam Sohn runs the team.

In his new role, Brown reports to Lithium’s CMO Katy Keim. Since 2012, Lithium has worked with Bite. 

“I’m excited to be at my first private company,” Brown told the Holmes Report. “I’m excited to be at the heart of social and community tech. I’m thrilled with the customer roster at Lithium and all the big impact things we do for them and their customers and users.”

Prior to Microsoft, Brown had stints at Pandora, Yahoo and NetApp. At the latter two companies he also reported to Steele.