Rajan Anandan, who led Microsoft India as its managing director for two years responsible for the tech giant's software, OEM and services business, is joining Google India as Vice President (Sales and Operations). Anandan is set to join Google India in February.
Daniel Alegre, President, Japan and Asia-Pacific Operations, Google, said, in a statement, "We are happy to have a leader of Rajan’s seniority and calibre to manage and lead it to the next phase of growth. India is an important growth country for Google. With Internet users growing at 50% year-on-year, a strong leadership team will ensure that Google captures this tremendous opportunity."
Anandan's appointment will allow Shailesh Rao, who was juggling two roles - Managing Director, Media and Platform Sales of Japan and Asia-Pacific and Managing Director and Head of Sales - to revert to his earlier role.
With an MSc from Stanford University and a BSc from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Anandan's career launched off as a principal partner with McKinsey & Company in Chicago between 1992 and 2003. He then joined Dell Inc as Vice President and was the executive assistant to Michael Dell till 2004, when he shifted roles to Vice President, Global Outsourcing and in 2006 was heightened to Vice President and Country General Manager of Dell India.
At Dell, he grew the business from $250 million to over $800 million. Anandan then joined Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd in September 2008 to head its sales and marketing operations. Under his management, Microsoft India was recognized as the top subsidiary among the emerging markets such as China, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, South Africa and India.
Anandan is also an active angel investor with a focus on very early stage companies in the Internet, mobile, software and ITeS space. He has a total of 17 early stage investments in startups such as luxury brands ecommerce site Exclusively.in, Hungryzone.com, Gurgaon-based Digilogue Communications and Pune-based Innovize Tech and is on the board of several of them.
After his stint as managing director of Microsoft India, which ended in August 2010, Anandan engaged in three investments - managed IT services domestic startup eTechies.in, online presentation sharing platform authorStream.com and Buytheprice.com. He is a member of the
Indian Angel Network (IAN) and co-founder of Blue Ocean Ventures.