Rajan Anandan to lead Google India

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Rajan Anandan as Vice President of India Sales and Operations.

Rajan brings to Google India an impressive pedigree of hi-tech and leadership expertise, as well as degrees from Stanford and MIT. His 18-year career includes key roles at Microsoft, Dell and McKinsey & Company. Says Daniel Alegre, President, Japan and Asia-Pacific Operations,"We always hire the best talent available. India is an important growth country for Google. We were voted the best company to work for in India and we are hiring across functions. With Internet users growing at 50% year-on-year, a strong leadership team will ensure that Google captures this tremendous opportunity. We are happy to have a leader of Rajan’s seniority and calibre to manage and lead it to the next phase of growth."

Most recently Rajan was MD of Microsoft India, responsible for all aspects of Microsoft’s software, OEM and services business in India. Under his leadership, Microsoft India was recognized as the Number 1 subsidiary among the emerging markets worldwide (China, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, South Africa and India).

Prior to joining Microsoft, Rajan was the Vice President and Country General Manager of Dell in India where he grew the Dell business from $250 million to over $800 million and several leadership roles including being the Executive Assistant to Chairman Michael Dell. Before that, he was a Partner with McKinsey & Company in Chicago. He holds an MSc from Stanford and a BSc from MIT.

Shailesh Rao, who has been covering those two roles, that of the Japan and Asia-Pacific Managing Director, Media and Platform Sales and Managing Director and Head of Sales, Google India, will remain in Gurgaon and move full-time to the former to deliver on the exciting growth plans for that business. Shailesh has been instrumental in getting India off the ground from a start-up to a scaled-up and successful business operation, with revenues and headcount growing substantially.

We would like to thank him for his achievements and dedication to the India business.

Posted by Daniel Alegre,VP, JAPAC Operations

Google India Celebrates Diversity

Never judge a search engine by its interface. Behind that simple search window is one of the most complex technology infrastructures in the world, and it’s run by an equally diverse group of people. At Google, we don’t just accept difference – we thrive on it, we celebrate it, and we support it for the benefit of our employees, our products, and our community. Google aspires to be an organization that reflects the globally diverse audience that our search engine and tools serve.

In striving towards this mission, the Google India Women in Engineering Awards was instituted in 2008 to recognize and reward deserving women students in Computer Science and related majors, and inspire them to become active participants and leaders in creating technology. We had 8 award recipients in 2010, 9 in 2009 and 16 in 2008. The initiative has been positively and enthusiastically received by both the students and colleges alike, lauded by the corporates and is now an established entity in the student community.

With three successful editions behind us, we are pleased to return with the Google India Women in Engineering Award 2011. This year, the award will open for applications on September 15, 2010, and is open to any woman student of Computer Science, in an under-graduate, post-graduate or doctoral program, that meets the application criteria. Applications remain open till October 31, 2010.

Aspirants to the award will be assessed on their academic excellence, passion for Computer Science and demonstrated leadership and the awardees will each receive a sum of INR 1,00,000. The winners will be announced in February, 2011. We look forward to inviting the winners for a conclave at the Google India engineering office.

In the words of an award recipient from 2009, Amisha Khera (Jaypee Institute of Information Technology) :

"Computer science has given me an opportunity to conceive, believe and achieve my ideas, by opening the door to an astounding world of innovations. Technology may have limitations on what it can accomplish but on the contrary, we as budding engineers do not."

We couldn’t agree more! With the institution of this award, we hope to recognize women students who have made a mark in the field of Computer Science and hope it inspires many more to take up studies in this field and pursue it as a career.

Posted by Keerthana Mohan, Diversity and Talent Inclusion Manager, APAC, Google