19-year IT industry veteran brings valuable telecommunications experience as company accelerates current transformation in mobile-first, cloud-first era.
SINGAPORE, 30 June, 2015 – Microsoft today announced Mr István Papp as its new Vice-President for Sales, Marketing & Services in Asia Pacific.
In his new role, Mr Papp will lead regional business operations for Microsoft in Asia Pacific, which now spans over 13,500 employees and 100,000 Microsoft partners across 12 subsidiaries. With expertise in sales, marketing, consulting, customer service and technical support, the Asia Pacific HQ team is the engine behind the successful adoption and use of Microsoft solutions and technologies by customers in the region.
Mr Papp joins Microsoft Asia Pacific after four highly-successful years as the General Manager of Microsoft Hungary, during which time his team was recognized as the best-performing Microsoft subsidiary, of its size, for two years running. Prior to joining the company in 2011, Mr Papp was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Magyar Telekom, the largest telecommunications company in Hungary and a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. As COO, Papp led the development of a new product portfolio and helped transform this traditional telecommunications company to a leading ICT service provider, as well as served on its Management Committee and Board of Directors.
On joining Microsoft’s team in the Asia Pacific region, Mr Papp said, “A transformation is happening at Microsoft right now. We will be the leading provider of productivity and platform solutions for this new “mobile-first, cloud-first” era. And, with the region’s highly mobile, highly-connected, highly-social citizens and businesses, nowhere will that vision become more of a reality than right here in Asia Pacific. So I could not be more excited to be joining the APAC region and helping our customers realize their potential – and achieve more – in this new era.”
Mr Papp will report to César Cernuda, President, Microsoft Asia Pacific, and join Microsoft’s Asia Pacific Leadership team. Mr Cernuda commented, “Asia Pacific continues to be one of the fastest-growing and most important regions for Microsoft, offering unprecedented opportunity, a unique set of challenges and amazing diversity. We need the best leaders to realize the potential in this region and, in Istvan, I believe we have secured the best. He is a seasoned, highly-capable business leader that brings relevant and valuable experience from the telecommunications industry and, most importantly, a genuine passion – for our customers, partners and employees.”
Mr Papp began his technology career at Anixter, the sole distributor of Lucent Technologies in Hungary, before joining Cisco Systems in 1999. At Cisco he worked in a variety of direct and indirect sales roles, ultimately becoming the most successful sales manager of the EMEA region in 2004. Later, he was appointed as Cisco’s General Manager of South-East Europe and, under his leadership, Cisco expanded its regional operations and opened 3 new offices in the Balkans. In addition to his regional leadership role, Mr Papp also served as a Member of the Hungarian Board at AmCham between 2006 and 2008.
In his new role, Mr Papp will succeed Mr Alvaro Celis who, after four successful years in his current role, has recently been promoted to become the Worldwide Vice-President of Microsoft Original Equipment (OEM) Sales team and is relocating to Microsoft’s Global Headquarters in Seattle.
Mr Papp will be relocating, with his wife and two children, to Singapore and commence his new role on 1st July 2015.
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