Asia Leadership

As Regional General Manager of Education for Microsoft Asia, Larry Nelson leads the education business unit for primary, secondary and higher education institutions and drives digital transformation projects in educational organizations across Asia which includes India, China, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and all other countries in Southeast Asia.

Before joining Microsoft in 2009, Nelson led the strategic planning of telecom services at Stanford University. He was also the principal at Global Educational Technology Knowledge, LLC, where he provided strategic planning, marketing, operations, market research and business development expertise to corporations, schools, universities and Ministries of Education.

With approximately three decades of experience, Nelson has held a series of executive positions in technology multinational corporations, including the acting executive director of the Global Education and Learning Community at Sun Microsystems, which was later established as an independent nonprofit corporation now called Curriki.

Nelson was also the vice president of sales, marketing, and finance at SchoolCity.com, and the CEO of the Decision Development Corporation (DDC), a privately held educational software publisher. Before entering the technology industry, he grounded his business skills at General Foods, Procter & Gamble, and Bloomingdale’s.

Nelson graduated from Vassar College, United States of America, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science (Legal Theory). He also received a Master of Business Administration in Marketing and Finance from Cornell University, United States of America.

Nelson is the secretary and treasurer of nonprofit Curriki’s Board of Directors. He has served on other Boards including the National Education Association (NEA) Foundation, as well as the Education Board of the Software Publishers Association, now known as the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA).