Rajiv Nair,
president,
Microsoft India
Rajiv Nair made more news when he quit Microsoft on January 8 as president, Microsoft India, than he did during his 13-year stint with the company. Letting others hog the limelight, Nair worked mainly on government relations and various community affairs initiatives launched by Microsoft in India.
Like any other multinational corporation, when Microsoft decided to set up shop in India in 1990, it needed somebody who could interact with the government not only to help the company get the necessary clearances but also to secure orders.
Microsoft chose Nair, who was only 26 at that time, as its first employee in India. For Nair, who has a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Lafayette College in the US, this was his first job.
For many years to come, he was to be Microsoft India's one-man army
