Vanitha Narayanan to be IBM India's new managing director

IBM India Pvt Ltd has appointed Vanitha Narayanan as its managing director, to take over from Shanker Annaswamy who will continue to remain with the company as senior adviser on India Enterprise.

Narayanan will be responsible for all of IBM's sales, marketing, services and global delivery operations in the India/South Asia (ISA) region, including operations in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The appointments are effective immediately. Both Narayanan and Annaswamy will report to Jim Bramante, senior vice president, IBM Growth Markets Unit, IBM said in statement late on Thursday.

Narayanan has over 25 years of experience working for IBM with multiple client sets in several countries. Since 2009, she has been a part of the IBM ISA business, serving in roles as the Sales & Distribution Leader and recently as the Managing Partner for Global Business Services (GBS).

Prior to this, she has served as the vice president of communications sector, Asia Pacific, and the global vice president for IBM's telecom solutions offerings. Narayanan is a member of IBM's integration and values team, which comprises senior global executives who are selected by the IBM chairman.

Narayanan also leads several leadership development and diversity initiatives for ISA and is the executive sponsor for developing the women's leadership pipeline.

Annaswamy joined IBM in 2004 as general manager of IBM India and has led ISA region as its Regional General Manager since 2007.