Dhawan's done it

ICE PEOPLE

When Neelam Dhawan was appointed managing director of Microsoft India on February 24 this year, it did not exactly make it to the headlines. The announcement came late at night on a day when newspapers were focused on the coming Budget and on developments in Bihar. However, the information technology community did sit up.

Dhawan replaced Rajiv Kaul, who moved to a key role in the company's headquarters at Redmond in the US.

Dhawan had been vice president of the customer solutions group at Hewlett Packard (HP) where she focused on enterprises, the public sector and small and medium businesses for all computing products and services. She was also responsible for strategic alliances and partner relationships.

Dhawan is now one of the few women to be heading a key Microsoft subsidiary in a country for which the Redmond gorilla has big plans. She is also among the few women to hold a top position in the Indian IT industry.

Says former colleague Bina Rajdebur, country manager, corporate marketing, at HP: "It would be difficult to find any single unique quality which has catapulted her to the top. It is a mixture of so many qualities "� her knowledge of technology and the market place, her ability to interact with people and organisations."

The economics graduate from St Stephens College, Delhi, who has a degree in management from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University, is known for her view that rather than technology it is people ultimately who create value for a company, customers and shareholders.

As managing director, Dhawan has been placed in charge of leading the software company's sales and marketing operations here and driving the company's partnerships and strategic alliances.

Microsoft officials say that she has drawn up a detailed agenda for meeting everyone within the company, after which she plans on meeting customers and others.

Dhawan, who has worked in the IT industry for more than 22 years, has a reputation for being aggressive. She joined Hewlett Packard in 1999 from IBM India.

At IBM, which she joined in 1996, she was vice-president, personal systems group and was also on the company's board of directors. She started her career at HCL.