The personnel changes come as Publicis is working to integrate Razorfish into its digital hub VivaKi. Last week, the French ad holding company lost its top digital media M&A and investment exec, Tim Hanlon. He served as EVP and managing director of VivaKi Ventures, Publicis’ new media VC arm.

SEE ALSO: Publicis Groupe’s Digital Media Investment Chief Tim Hanlon Signs Off

AdAge’s Michael Learmonth identifies some of the changes going on at Razofish as Publicis figures out how to make its various parts fit in and complement Digitas, the digital shop Publicis acquired nearly three years ago. For example, David Kramer, CEO of Digitas Health, has been given responsibility for overseeing Razorfish’s health accounts team.

In an interview with paidContent, Lanctot said he officially starts his new job on Jan. 1, 2010, though he’ll begin transitioning over in November. Lanctot played a role in the managing the sale of Razorfish to Publicis, but said as he was approaching the 10-year mark, he wanted something new. He considered joining a start-up, but ultimately, decided the Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) position provided enough of change from what he had been doing. “I knew I wanted to do something a little outside the agency world I had been in,” Lanctot said. “The challenges of working on display and search were very interesting plus, and Microsoft is starting to get some real momentum there. Plus, I knew a number of the principals at Microsoft very well,” he added, citing relationships with Scott Howe, VP, advertiser and publisher solutions group, and Yusef Mehdi, SVP for the online audience business. On a more personal note, Lanctot remain based in Seattle.

As for replacing Lanctot and Watson, Razorfish told us that its looking at candidates inside the agency and across the Publicis Groupe network, but haven’t named anyone yet.