Google Cloud appoints Karan Bajwa as APAC leader

Google Cloud on Tuesday announced the elevation of Karan Bajwa as its new leader for Asia Pacific. He currently leads Google Cloud in India.

Bajwa will lead all regional revenue and go-to-market operations for Google Cloud, including on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Google Workspace from January 5, 2021, a statement said. He succeeds Rick Harshman who leaves the organization for a new opportunity, it added. Bajwa is currently based in Gurgaon, but will relocate to Singapore in 2021. He will continue to lead Google Cloud in India until a new senior leader for the business is appointed. He will report to Rob Enslin, President of Sales, Google Cloud. "Since Karan joined us in March 2020, Google Cloud in India has grown from strength to strength. He's advanced the digital transformation journeys of many large Indian organisations across industries and successfully expanded our partner community,'' Enslin said. Bajwa brings management and sales experience with him to this regional role, and the organisation is thrilled to have him at the helm of the APAC business, Enslin added.

"With the disruptions of 2020 behind us, a true test of 2021 will be how companies replatform and build on the cloud not only for resilience but agility and innovation, and I'm excited for the opportunity to lead Google Cloud's business in APAC to maximise this next phase of growth," Bajwa said. Google Cloud is on a strong growth trajectory within Asia Pacific and counts ANZ Bank, Lendlease, Optus, Sharechat, Tech Mahindra, L&T Finance, Wipro, Samsung Electronics, Foxconn, Kia Motors, Go-JEK, Tokopedia, and XL Axiata among its customers. The company also continues to invest in technical infrastructure in the region having launched its GCP regions in Jakarta and Seoul last year, with planned expansion to Delhi and Melbourne in 2021.