March 1, 2021, Hong Kong – Microsoft Corporation today announced that Dr. HOU Yang will succeed Alain Crozier to lead Microsoft’s Global Sales, Marketing and Operations organization in the Greater China Region (GCR).
Crozier has served as Chairman and CEO of Microsoft GCR since 2016, transforming the business to deliver first-class cloud services to customers, helping them transform their own businesses for the new world of the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge. Alain has delivered consistent business growth for Microsoft, taking risks in developing high-growth cloud start-ups, building a robust ecosystem of partners with capabilities and solutions to help both small businesses and enterprises to grow in China as well as to expand beyond China to the world. Under Alain’s leadership, Microsoft has recently doubled down on its investments in the region including doubling cloud capacity in China twice during the past few years.
Ahmed Mazhari, President for Microsoft Asia said: “I want to thank Alain for his leadership delivering transformational growth in a very complex market over the past five years. Alain has built a strong leadership team and has cultivated a diverse and inclusive culture. His personal dedication to the development and wellbeing of his teams, particularly during the pandemic, has inspired all of us at Microsoft in many ways. During his tenure, his leadership has led to numerous accolades for the Greater China team including Microsoft’s Subsidiary of the Year distinction for Mainland China and Hong Kong, twice in a row.”
Alain Crozier’s next role will be announced in the near future, he will continue to lead Microsoft Greater China till July 1.
Alain’s successor, Dr. HOU Yang, comes to Microsoft from Qualcomm where he served for 8 years in both the US and in China, most recently as Senior Vice President of the Semiconductor business – Qualcomm’s largest revenue generator in China. During his tenure, the business experienced tremendous growth and more than tripled in revenue. He led a team which collaborated with telecom and mobile internet partners to migrate wireless technologies, deepened partnerships with leading Chinese corporations across industries from mobile to industrial to automotive and drove technology innovation together with a broad array of ecosystem partners in China. Prior to Qualcomm, he spent five years at McKinsey as a leader in their tech practice, based in the US.
Ahmed Mazhari said: “HOU Yang is a proven transformational leader, bringing strong technology industry ecosystem partner development capabilities as well as local insight to enable customers. He is an experienced business leader across operations, product optimization and sales with a track record in partner and customer engagement. He brings a balanced combination of strategic thinking and execution discipline, that delivered outsized growth. We are incredibly fortunate to have a strong leader, like him, at the helm in Greater China to navigate our future and unlock the growth opportunities available to us.”
Dr. HOU Yang grew up in Shenyang, China and received his Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Peking University and PhD. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan.
Dr. HOU Yang will begin his onboarding at Microsoft on March 1 and will shadow Alain Crozier until July 1, at which time Dr. HOU Yang will assume sole responsibility.
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