Industry veteran Ricky Kapur, former Managing Director of Google’s Cloud Platform in APAC, joins Microsoft at a time of unprecedented transformation and cloud growth.
SINGAPORE, 1 December 2015 – Microsoft today announced the appointment of Ricky Kapur as the new General Manager for its Enterprise & Partner Group in Asia-Pacific, effective January 1, 2016.
He joins Microsoft from Google, where he was Managing Director for their Cloud Platform business in Asia-Pacific and, prior to that, led its Google For Work organization. At Google he was responsible for sales, operations and partnership development across one of the fastest-growing regions in the world.
At Microsoft, Kapur will succeed previous incumbent Alberto Granados who, after 2.5 years in-role, has been promoted to become Vice-President of Microsoft’s Enterprise & Partner Group for Asia.
An IT industry veteran of over 20 years, Kapur has a long and distinguished leadership career in APAC, including serving as Vice President for Oracle’s Technology Business for ASEAN, as well as leadership roles at Siebel and business analytics provider, SAS.
Kapur joins Microsoft during a period of significant transformation for both the company and the technology industry. Sparked by the appointment of CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. The company will achieve this by focusing on three long-term, bold ambitions: creating more personal computing experiences, reinventing productivity and business processes, and building the intelligent cloud platform.
“I’m very excited to be given the opportunity to lead Microsoft’s enterprise team in Asia-Pacific, especially during this exciting and transformative time for the company. My passion lies in helping large businesses recognize the potential of new technologies to drive innovation in their respective industries, and ultimately spearhead creative solutions for their customers,” Kapur said.
“With a rich portfolio of technologies across devices, applications, platforms and a deep understanding of how to serve the enterprise, Microsoft is one of the few technology companies who can integrate this value for the enterprise.
Since the appointment of Nadella as CEO in February 2014, Microsoft has accelerated its commitment to bringing cloud platform innovation on a global scale to its enterprise customers. For example, in its most recent earnings report, to end September 2015, it reported:
- The Microsoft commercial cloud business was now worth over $8.2bn a year
- It is growing almost 70% year-on-year.
- The company is on track to achieve its goal of a $20bn commercial cloud business by FY18.
- It now has 20 data-center regions, more than any other global cloud provider.
Such significant investment, momentum and growth clearly attracts talent. Kapur is just the latest in a series of high-profile, senior-level defections from other local IT companies, who have chosen to join Microsoft in recent months:
- In January, HP’s Managing Director for Malaysia, Thiyagu Letchumanan left to head up Microsoft’s Enterprise sales team in Malaysia.
- In April, K Raman, Oracle Corporation’s Regional Managing Director for ASEAN and South Asia Growth Economies also joined Microsoft Malaysia as its new Managing Director.
- In July, Dell’s Vice-President of Asia-Pacific & Japan, Barrie Sheers joined Microsoft New Zealand as Managing Director.
- In October, Area Vice-President of Salesforce.com, Simon Davies, left the company to join Microsoft as Vice-President of its Business Solutions division.
Microsoft’s Asia-Pacific President, Cesar Cernuda commented: “There is significant change happening at Microsoft right now and that is a big draw for talent across many disciplines. We are thrilled to have Ricky join us to lead our Enterprise team in APAC. He brings with him extensive proven business and leadership skills, plus local cloud market knowledge, insights and the expertise needed to lead our team of highly-committed local professionals, dedicated to helping our customers succeed in a mobile-first, cloud-first world”
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