Yasmin_Mahmood
- Ananth_Lazarus
Ananth Lazarus is being appointed to the position of Microsoft Malaysia Managing Director with effect from 1st January 2010.
With over 22 years experience in the IT industry, 11 of which have been with Microsoft, Mr Lazarus was previously Regional Senior Director of Small and Medium Businesses as well as being Microsoft Malaysia’s Chief Marketing and Operations Officer and Director of Small to Midmarket Solutions and Partners from 2004 to end-2007.
Current Managing Director Puan Yasmin Mahmood will leave the company at the end of calendar year 2009 having accepted the role of Executive Director of YTL Communications as of 1st February 2010.
“I am very excited to return to Malaysia, a country that I consider my second home and loved working in. I am thrilled with the opportunity to work with the amazing team at Microsoft in Malaysia yet again,” said Mr Lazarus, who had been based out of Singapore for the past two years.
Microsoft Asia-Pacific President Emilio Umeoka expressed the company’s gratitude to Yasmin Mahmood for her efforts and achievements over the past three years. During this time, she has helped strengthen the relationships Microsoft has with its customers, developers, distributors and Malaysian Government, he said.
“Yasmin brought an energy and passion to Microsoft Malaysia, and her efforts to ‘Malaysianise’ Microsoft and align the company’s investments in Malaysia with the aspirations of the Malaysian Government was very positive,” Mr Umeoka said.
“Although we are really sad to see her go, we wish Yasmin well in her next career move.
“I am excited that Ananth will be bringing his style of leadership to Malaysia, a country Microsoft considers as being extremely important in the region and in this part of the world,” he further said.
“Ananth possesses a very sound record of delivering very strong performance across all areas of his responsibilities and we have every confidence that, under his leadership, Microsoft Malaysia will help the country make tremendous progress in its development,” added Mr Umeoka.
Meanwhile, Puan Yasmin described her three years at Microsoft Malaysia as being “the most memorable ones to date in my entire career.”
“Besides the achievements made on the corporate front, my journey in Microsoft Malaysia was also a personal one for me to discover ‘Self’ and who I really am as a person and as a professional. I am delighted to be passing on the baton to Ananth whom I am sure will take the company to even greater heights,” said Puan Yasmin.
In the meantime, the Malaysian Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry (PIKOM) described this development as being “extremely positive for local ICT industry” and wished Microsoft Malaysia and Yasmin every success in their respective new chapters.
PIKOM President C J Ang described Yasmin, who was recognized by the association recently as the ‘2009 ICT Person of the Year’, as a “visionary yet down-to-earth leader”.
“During her tenure as Microsoft Malaysia Managing Director, Yasmin has been exemplary in aligning her passion of enriching the lives of Malaysians with that of Microsoft’s corporate responsibility citizenship charter of fostering local innovation, transforming education and enabling jobs and opportunities,” he said.
“At the same time, PIKOM is heartened to welcome the appointment of Ananth Lazarus as the company’s Managing Director with open arms,” he further said, saying that PIKOM looks forward to Microsoft Malaysia continuing in its role of being a catalyst of growth for the local ICT industry.
Microsoft Malaysia, today, has the largest local partner ecosystem in the country. With some 5,000 partners and an annual investment of RM26 million to grow the local software economy, Microsoft Malaysia has also pledged to invest RM300 million to nurture local technopreneurs and IT startups through the Microsoft BizSpark programme so that more “Made in Malaysia” IT solutions are created along the way.
The company also announced earlier this year its pledge to invest up to RM3 billion in software and in kind for its DreamSpark programme for every single tertiary student throughout the country. The Malaysian DreamSpark programme aims at empowering local students with professional-level developer and designer tools – at no charge whatsoever – so that are able to chase their dreams of becoming world-class IT professions while also getting a head start with their careers.
