Microsoft appoints Irina Ghose as new COO for India

Microsoft India has appointed Irina Ghose, who was so far the executive director for the company’s Cloud Solutions division in India, as its new Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the country. Ghose replaces Rajiv Sodhi, who has spent over 15 years in the company over two separate stints. Sodhi took over the COO role in 2020 and will be moving on to an international role.

Ghose has been at Microsoft India for over two decades, joining the company in December 2001 after stints at HCL Infosystems and Wipro. In 2010, she founded MyLittleBit, a philanthropic foundation that focuses on providing education and employment for underprivileged girls in India. She is also a trustee at SonderConnect – a non-profit trust that supports women-led startups in the country.

Ghose has been at Microsoft India for over two decades, joining the company in December 2001 after stints at HCL Infosystems and Wipro. In 2010, she founded MyLittleBit, a philanthropic foundation that focuses on providing education and employment for underprivileged girls in India. She is also a trustee at SonderConnect – a non-profit trust that supports women-led startups in the country.

In her new role, Ghose will be responsible for Microsoft’s overall operations and businesses in India. Talking about scopes of businesses in India’s technology landscape, she said, “In India, cloud will be at the heart of the digital innovation journey. As per IDC, the Indian public cloud ecosystem is expected to rise dramatically, reaching $9.5 billion by 2025 at 21.5% growth.”

She added that Indian startups today offer a strong ecosystem that can serve India’s enterprises and governments, which is coupled with the country’s developers to “fuel digital growth in banking, manufacturing, and retail organizations.”

The executive also singled out ambient computing as a key tool in digital transformation of Indian ventures. “We are moving from a mobile and cloud era to an era of ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence. Along the way, we are witnessing some standout trends, some unfolding faster than the others, but all of them powerful in their capacity for transformation,” she said.

In previous roles at Microsoft, Ghose has been the director of sales, partnerships and strategy at different points in her career. She has also been the Microsoft India country head for education, modern workplaces and Azure sales, too.