Ravi Venkatesan

Ravi Venkatesan, chairman of Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd, is responsible for Microsoft’s marketing, operational and business development efforts in the country. In partnership with the leaders of Microsoft’s other business units, Venkatesan provides a single point of leadership for the company, playing an integral role in defining Microsoft’s relationship with policy makers, customers and business partners across Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt Ltd’s six distinct business units in India namely: the Marketing Subsidiary, Microsoft India Development Center, Microsoft Global Technical Support Centre, Microsoft Global Development Center India, Microsoft Global Services India and Microsoft Research India. 

Before joining Microsoft, Venkatesan worked for over 17 years with Cummins Inc, a US-based designer, manufacturer and distributor of engines and related technologies. He served in various leadership capacities at Cummins, including chairman of Cummins India Ltd and managing director of Tata Cummins Ltd, a joint venture between Cummins Inc and Tata Motors Ltd. Under his leadership, Cummins became the leading provider of power solutions and the largest manufacturer of automotive engines in the country.

Venkatesan has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, a master’s in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University, Indiana, and a MBA from Harvard University, Massachusetts, where he was a Baker Scholar. Venkatesan was awarded Purdue University's Outstanding Industrial Engineer award in 2000 and the Distinguished Alumnus award by the Indian Institute of Technology in 2003.

Venkatesan is a member of the Executive Council of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, the Confederation of Indian Industry, a director on the Board of Thermax Ltd and a member of the Advisory Council of the Indian ITT-Bombay and IIT-Bangalore. He is frequent contributor to the “Harvard Business Review”.

His interests include reading, travel, classical music and philanthropy.