Tokyo, October 1, 2019 — Microsoft is pleased to announce that Hitoshi Yoshida has been appointed as the new President of Microsoft Japan, effective today.
Yoshida-san is responsible for leading the company’s business for Microsoft Japan and reports to Ralph Haupter, President of Microsoft Asia.
Yoshida-san joins Microsoft from Hewlett-Packard Japan, a Japanese subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE), where, for the past five years, he served as President of the company. Prior to joining Hewlett-Packard Japan, Yoshida-san held various top management roles with a strong track record of driving change and delivering business success. These include serving as Managing Director, North Asia of SAS Institute, President of SAS Institute Japan, President of Novell Japan and President of Cambridge Technology Partners Japan.
Commenting on Yoshida-san’s appointment, Ralph Haupter, President of Microsoft Asia, said: “I am truly delighted that Yoshida-san has chosen to join us as the new leader for Microsoft Japan. He brings with him strength in driving complex, customer-focused businesses, a deep understanding of the IT industry, and more than twenty years of leadership experience. As the President of Hewlett-Packard Japan, he successfully transformed the company by building a strong ecosystem of partners, including a thriving relationship with Microsoft as one of HPE’s major strategic allies. Along with that, he brings strong relationships with many of our joint customers. Under his stewardship, I am sure he will further our mission to empower more of our customers, partners, and the citizens of Japan to achieve more, through digital transformation.”
Yoshida-san takes over responsibilities from Takuya Hirano who took on a global role to lead Global Systems Integrators (GSIs) business in the One Commercial Partner (OCP) organization in Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Seattle. To ensure a seamless transition of business operations, Hirano-san will continue to support the existing Microsoft Japan leadership team as an Executive Advisor.
Yoshida-san said, “I’m thrilled to be joining Microsoft and am eager to start working with a fantastic organization and a very experienced leadership team in Japan. The growth potential is enormous. I’m excited by the possibilities of Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. And I look forward to working closely with our customers, partners and employees to do just that.”
