Nishant K Rao is LinkedIn country manager

Professional networking site LinkedIn, which has over 18 million users in India, on Tuesday said it has appointed Nishant K Rao as the new country manager. Rao would replace Hari V Krishnan, who has moved to a larger role as the managing director for Asia-Pacific and Japan.

In his new role as the country manager for LinkedIn India, Rao will focus on scaling-up operations and staying committed to LinkedIn’s value proposition of connecting India’s professionals to make them more successful and productive and helping enterprises hire, market and sell effectively.

“With a member base of 18 million professionals, India is one of our fastest growing markets and the largest outside of the US,” Rao said.

“Indian marketers and recruiters are fast realising the potential of LinkedIn’s affluent member base and are leveraging the platform for targeted and thought leadership oriented campaigns.”

I am excited about the opportunity to work with the LinkedIn India team to serve our customers and members in India.”

Prior to being appointed as LinkedIn India’s Country Manager, Nishant was director, business operations – head of global sales strategy at LinkedIn’s headquarters in Mountain View. He has been with LinkedIn since September 2011 and has a strong understanding of the company’s business.

Rao has over 10 years of industry experience with a healthy mix of sales, strategy management and entrepreneurship. He has held leadership positions with companies like McKinsey and ARIBA Inc and was also one of the founding members of Epicentre Technologies — one amongst India’s first call centres.

He holds an MBA in strategy, entrepreneurship, marketing and international business from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.