Microsoft appoints new APAC marketing lead

Microsoft has appointed Wendy Johnstone as marketing and operations lead for Asia Pacific (APAC), effective from 3 July, 2017.Johnstone joins Microsoft from Salesforce, where she was most recently the vice president of marketing for APAC. Based in Singapore, she will spearhead all marketing activities and operations for Microsoft in Singapore and the region, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and other emerging Asian markets such as Bangladesh, Brunei, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka.She will also be responsible for the orchestration of regional Go-To-Market sales in these markets, driving the revenue, market share and overall performance of all Microsoft commercial products and services.A veteran with over 20 years of experience, she has held numerous senior marketing leadership positions earlier in organisations such as Salesforce, EMC and IBM, and has built a track record in utilising modern marketing techniques, to drive revenue and share growth, said Microsoft in a statement.Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, recently highlighted the company’s goal of bringing the power of the cloud to customers’ mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, to enable an intelligent edge that delivers compute capabilities to the places where its data exists. On that, Johnstone is tasked to execute the company’s renewed vision to "empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more."Alberto Granados, Microsoft’s vice president of sales, marketing and operations for APAC said Johnstone joined Microsoft at an opportune time where her extensive experience, especially her cloud expertise, will be an invaluable asset in helping to accelerate Microsoft’s momentum in APAC’s fast-growing markets.“I am looking forward to achieving great things for our customers, partners, communities and company with the team. With the proliferation of cloud and mobile devices, increased customer interest in cloud and digital transformation, plus advances in artificial intelligence, the opportunity ahead of Microsoft in Asia Pacific is huge," Johnstone said.Johnstone is an ardent advocate for diversity and inclusion, and a champion for women in technology. She was previously the APAC gender diversity executive sponsor at Salesforce, and expects to further her passion in this area in her new role, Microsoft said.