SINGAPORE, December 16, 2013 – Microsoft Singapore today announced the appointment of Ms Ngiam Foong Chee as Chief Marketing & Operations Officer for Singapore, taking over the role previously held by Mr John Fernandes, who will move to Microsoft Asia Pacific as Director, Commercial Markets Strategy Group, Asia Pacific. In addition, Mr Nobuhiro Ito will assume the role of Developer & Platform Evangelism (DPE) Lead for Singapore, taking over from Mr Ziriad Saibi, who is now Asia Pacific Director, Consumer Sales at Microsoft Asia Pacific. These appointments are part of Microsoft’s long-established practice and commitment to talent development and diversity in the workforce.
“Microsoft represents 90,000 people, in more than 100 countries, regions and territories with a diversity of backgrounds and a breadth of skills. As a global company with a strong local presence, we ensure that we offer opportunities for our people to build their careers with us in various offices across the world. We capitalize on the diversity of our people so we can surface the best ideas and solutions to meet the needs of our increasingly global and diverse customer base,” said Ms Jessica Tan, Managing Director, Microsoft Singapore.
She adds, “We are very pleased to welcome Foong Chee and Nobuhiro to the leadership team in Singapore. They are proven strong team leaders who are hugely passionate about technology and the potential it brings. With their wealth of knowledge, track record and commitment to success, they will be great assets for us!”
Chief Marketing & Operations Officer adds to diversity of leadership team
In her new role, Foong Chee will head a team which oversees marketing, business operations and strategy for the Singapore subsidiary. She will lead the overall marketing and business orchestration across Microsoft Singapore to drive growth while at the same time, maximize customer and partners’ experiences through the enablement and success of the various teams.
Foong Chee will be the latest female leader to join the Senior Leadership Team in Microsoft Singapore. In line with global diversity and inclusion strategies, Microsoft Singapore has a strong focus on ensuring that female talents are well represented in its workforce. 50 percent of the senior leadership team are female and 34.8 per cent of Microsoft Singapore staff are female, above the industry benchmark of 32 per cent. Prior to this role, Foong Chee was the Small and Medium Businesses (SMB) Lead under the Small Mid-market Solutions and Partner Group (SMS&P) in Microsoft Singapore, with responsibilities across growing distributorship, the reseller eco-system, hosting business development and SMB marketing. Under her leadership, the local SMB business has grown over 20 per cent for two consecutive years, surpassing market growth significantly.
“I am excited to have this opportunity to play a leadership role during this dynamic period as Microsoft transforms into a devices and services company,” said Foong Chee. “I look forward to be part of the team, whose passion and tenacity inspires me daily, to grow our business and impact in Singapore.”
Foong Chee has spent more than 14 years in Microsoft. Her commitment to excel in the business has won her various prestigious internal accolades, including the Worldwide SMS&P Execution Excellence Award and Gold Club Award. In addition, she stepped up to co-chair the People Managers’ Community (PMC), and led the development of the PMC for Singapore. PMC is a structured platform for managers to share and learn best people management practices from each other.
New DPE Lead a Microsoft veteran
As DPE Group Lead, Nobuhiro will lead efforts to build a vibrant solutions ecosystem through evangelism, community engagement and technology marketing. Hailing from Japan, Nobuhiro is a Microsoft veteran who has experienced the huge wave of growth in both the Consumer and Commercial business.
From his first role evangelizing Windows Small Business Server to traditional local customers and partners in the small and medium market, Nobuhiro moved to Enterprise Services marketing before taking up a variety of roles in the DPE group, including Academic Evangelism & Marketing Lead, Startups Business Lead, Developer Tools Business Group Lead, Partner Account Management Lead and DPE Business Manager.
Besides receiving the 2003 Microsoft Global Briefing Award for his outstanding performance in driving the IP businesses, Nobuhiro was also responsible for establishing a structured model for driving worldwide student events in India, Korea and Japan, including the Imagine Cup. This model is still working successfully in the business today.
Nobuhiro said: “I am thrilled to join the Microsoft Singapore team during this exciting time. Having spent the last eight years of my career driving academic evangelism, startup innovations and partner engagements, the importance of a strong developer and partner ecosystem is even more critical today. I look forward to advancing our relationships with the various technical and academic audiences here in Singapore and build the foundation for the next generation of Devices and Services from Microsoft!”
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