Microsoft India elevates key hands in top-level rejig

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Microsoft India with several key leaders being elevated. ET has learnt that chief operating officer Irina Ghose has been promoted as managing director of India. The current MD Sashi Sreedharan has been elevated to a bigger role.

Ghose's COO position will be taken over by Navtez Bal, who was earlier executive director of public sector while Venkat Krishnan, who was heading partnerships has been elevated as executive director of public sector business. Microsoft confirmed the elevation of Ghose, Bal and Krishnan These announcements were formally made by the company a few weeks ago and have come into effect from July 1, the company's start of the financial year. Some reports have said that AWS India head Puneet Chandok who resigned earlier this year is headed to Microsoft.

Ghose was COO of Microsoft India until recently with the responsibility to drive end-to-end operations for the Microsoft customer and partner solutions in India. “The company has introduced several changes in the top management effective from July 1, which is the beginning of the financial year for Microsoft,” said the person who did not wish to be identified. Microsoft is currently the leader in the enterprise cloud front but is also facing fierce competition in India from the likes of Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.

With a large number of small and medium businesses increasing their cloud and digital spends since the pandemic, India holds a very strong opportunity. Microsoft India president Anant Maheshwari, who was appointed the Nasscom chairperson in April, said in a recent interview that the company is accelerating its footprint in India. “In India, you're still having a lot more green shoots,” he said.