VMware appoints ex-Red Hat official as India MD

Parameswaran who replaces T Srinivasan would be responsible for VMware's growing business interests in region

Virtualisation and cloud infrastructure major VMware today said its India Managing Director T Srinivasan has decided to step down from the company, and would be replaced by Arun Parameswaran.

In his current role, Parameswaran would be responsible for VMware's growing business interests in the region. He will join the company from April 24, and report to Sanjay Mirchandani, VMware's senior vice president and general manager for the Asia Pacific and Japan region.

With over 21 years of experience, Parameswaran comes to VMware from Red Hat India, where he was the general manager in charge of the company's business throughout the Indian subcontinent, VMware said in a release today.

He was earlier a senior director-global business development at Red Hat, and was responsible for building and managing the company's partners across Asia Pacific and Japan.

Parameswaran has earlier worked with Wipro Infotech in India, holding various sales and product management positions.

"This appointment will help accelerate VMware's progress in one of our prime growth markets, as we work to ensure Indian businesses reap the full benefits of our vision of IT-as-a-Service," Mirchandani said. "Under Arun's leadership, the VMware India team will be well positioned to capitalise on the enormous opportunities ahead."

Srinivasan, who has been with VMware for five years, says he has not yet finalised his future plans.

"For some time I will relax and play my golf before something new comes up, Srinivasan told Business Standard. "This is not a sudden decision, though from outside it might seem so. The succession planning has been underway for long now and after all that the announcement has come today."

Last week, the NYSE-listed company had said it would invest $500 million (around Rs 3,017 crore) in India over the next three years, mainly towards creation of new capacity, strengthening research and development (R&D), and in other business operations.

The company's operations in India are second largest in size and scale after its global headquarters in the US. As many as 2,300 of VMware's total 16,000 employees are currently based out of India. The company established presence in India in 2005 and now has over 3,500 customers here.