IBM appoints Sandip Patel as India and South Asia MD

Global information technology services and cloud giant IBM has appointed Sandip Patel as managing director of its India and South Asia (ISA) operations. 

The development comes after Karan Bajwa moved out of IBM, where he spent a little less than four years, the company said in a media statement. 

Patel will be responsible for all strategic and operational matters related to IBM's sales, marketing, services and delivery operations in the region, the company said. Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka are part of the South Asia operations. 

According to IBM, Patel will play a critical role in enabling India’s capabilities across IBM’s global missions, global centres of excellence, research and innovation labs and several other divisions. IBM has more than a lakh engineers employed in India across multiple cities, almost one-third of its global workforce.

Patel was based in Boston, Massachusetts where he was IBM’s global general manager for the insurance industry and was responsible for IBM’s business across all brands in this market segment. His global leadership experience will bring value to IBM’s clients and business in the region, IBM said. 

He has extensive expertise in key industries, including financial services, insurance and healthcare, IBM said. A chartered accountant from Kolkata, Patel did his MBA from Boston University. 

“IBM has been a key player in India’s technology journey and continues to provide the innovation necessary to power India’s digital transformation across key industries and Government.  Sandip’s deep industry expertise and global understanding of clients across different markets will bring real value to our clients as they embark on their transformation journey,” Harriet Green, chairman and CEO, IBM Asia Pacific said.

Between 2002 and 2009, Patel has served as managing partner with IBM in India, before moving on as the president of Aetna International where he had full responsibility for their international business.

In his early career, Patel served as a partner at audit firms PriceWaterhouse Coopers and Coopers & Lybran and was a practising chartered accountant in India. Patel went back to IBM in 2013 and headed the insurance, healthcare and life science vertical.

For Bajwa too, this was his second stint at IBM and he led the India business during a period of great change in the marketplace, the company said.

"Bajwa was responsible for growing IBM’s mid-market business, enabling clients’ digital transformation and journey to the cloud," IBM said in the statement.

Before the IBM role, Bajwa was with Microsoft for more than eight years and left the company as India managing director to join IBM. 

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