Karan Bajwa is the new India MD at IBM, Vanitha Narayan appointed Chairman, IBM India

IBM has announced the appointment of Karan Bajwa as Managing Director of IBM India succeeding Vanitha Narayana who is appointed as Chairman of IBM India. These leadership announcements further demonstrate IBM’s commitment in the region.

Karan joined IBM in 2016 as Executive for Strategy and Transformation in the Asia Pacific region. Prior to this, he was the Managing Director, Microsoft India where, besides leading the India business for the company, he also the led the Cloud Transition and the Ecosystem engagement. Erstwhile, he served in various roles in Microsoft and Cisco. Karan is not new to IBM, having worked for five years leading IBM’s networking business and based in Singapore from 2001 - 2005.

As Managing Director of IBM India, Karan will be responsible for all strategic and operational matters related to IBM’s sales, marketing, services and delivery operations in the India/SA region, including Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. He will lead the team to win new business, shape market opportunities by building alliances and partnerships and solidify the company’s position in the marketplace. He will lead IBM’s partnership with clients for a cloud and cognitive led digital transformation of their businesses.

As Chairman, Vanitha will play a critical role in enabling capabilities across IBM’s global missions in India, global centers of excellence, research and innovation labs. IBM will rely on her leadership to engage and further strengthen the Government and Regulatory affairs initiatives. She will maximize the value of the entire organization in the region by evangelizing IBM’s brand and solutions in the ecosystem.

Vanitha has over 29 years of experience working across IBM in several countries. She has been a part of the IBM India/South Asia business since 2009 and was appointed to the position of Managing Director in 2013. In her tenure as the Managing Director, she has consistently led strong revenue growth and expanded India’s footprint across new industries, making India one of the fastest growing markets for IBM. She comes with deep industry experience and has held various leadership roles in Sales and Distribution, Global Business Services(GBS) and the Telecom sector, across AsiaPacific and Global markets.

Both, Karan and Vanitha will report to Randy Walker, Chairman, IBM Asia Pacific. These appointments are effective immediately.