Microsoft India gets a new boss

Microsoft Corp India Pvt Ltd has announced the appointment of Rajiv Kaul as the new MD. Simultaneously, Sanjay Mirchandani who was the MD till now, will now take on a new role as Regional Director (South Asia Region), Microsoft Corp. Rajiv Nair, President, Microsoft India, will take on additional responsibility as Senior Strategic Advisor, Microsoft Asia.

In his new role, Kaul will be directly responsible for releasing Microsoft's .NET vision, spearheading the customer-partner focus and the portal MSN. In addition, he will be responsible for Microsoft's developer and education initiatives in India.

Mirchandani would oversee the management of seven local subsidiaries including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and India. He would manage a regional team to drive strategic business initiatives and would also be responsible for business development in the region.

In addition to his current responsibility as President, Microsoft India, Nair will now take on a role as Senior Strategic Advisor to Microsoft, working on specific projects in co-operation with subsidiaries and also exploring regional co-operation. As part of his new responsibility, he would bring his experience in India to bear on building relations with local governments and the software industry in the Asia region.

Commenting on his appointment, Kaul said, "This is a very exciting time for Microsoft and I look forward to the challenge of sustaining and building on our past performance. A big focus area for me is to maintain Microsoft India's pride of place as one of the fastest growing regions worldwide."

Commenting on the changes, Michael Rawding, VP, Microsoft Asia, said, "Sanjay and Rajiv have both been critical to the success of Microsoft's business in the Indian sub-continent. It gives me great pride to see them rewarded with new and challenging responsibilities and I am confident they would both have much success in their new roles. In the past few years, India and the Asian region have emerged as strong growth engines for Microsoft's global business and under this new leadership, I am sure we will see more of that trend."