Juniper Networks Inc.'s (Nasdaq: JNPR) VP of marketing, Christine Heckart, has taken a job as the general manager of marketing for Microsoft TV.Heckart was president of TeleChoice Inc., a telecom consultancy, before her three-year gig at Juniper. She will report to Moshe Lichtman, corporate vice president of the Microsoft TV division, say Microsoft officials. She'll be the boss of Microsoft TV director of marketing Ed Graczyk, replacing Lynne Elander, a former cable executive who was the first face of Microsoft TV, as the company was making a push with cable providers last year.

Her arrival at Microsoft comes at a critical time for the software giant, which has won huge IPTV deployment deals with huge carriers around the world (see Microsoft Wins at BT, SBC, Microsoft Defend Lightspeed, and Swisscom IPTV Stall Sends Shivers). Microsoft is under the gun to prove that it can lead the IPTV software industry, even though it doesn't have a track record in the TV middleware or carrier operations software space.

One might conclude that by hiring Heckart, the woman who co-wrote "ATM for Dummies," Microsoft has decided to get closer to the telecom mindset.

Of course, that's not all Christine Heckart has done. It was under Heckart's watch at Juniper that the company embraced an advertising program highlighted by campy -- and controversial -- cartoons that took shots at rival Cisco Systems Inc., a program equally loathed and loved.

Heckart didn't return Light Reading's calls seeking comment. Her former employer, Juniper, didn't call back, either.

— Phil Harvey, News Editor, Light Reading