Google Cloud appoints Serene Sia to lead Singapore business

• Will lead go-to-market strategy, operations, and partner ecosystem
• Brings 30+ years of diverse business and software technology leadership in Asia

Google Cloud announced the appointment of Serene Sia (pic) as country director of its business in Singapore. 

In a statement, the firm said Sia will be responsible for leading go-to-market strategy and operations spanning consulting, sales, and partner ecosystem, collaborating with teams across Google to help organisations in Singapore reimagine their business and industry using enterprise-grade cloud AI solutions.

Sia will report to Mark Micallef, managing director, Southeast Asia, Google Cloud. She joins Google Cloud following regional leadership roles at Autodesk, Oracle, Salesforce, and SAP, bringing over 30 years of diverse business and software technology leadership experience across Asia.

During her time with these multinational companies, Sia led strategic business engagements and partnerships with organizations in financial services, telecommunications, retail, manufacturing, public sector, and more. In 2014, she helped set up and scale human capital consulting company Presence of IT, which was acquired by Deloitte in 2019.

“Whether it’s in launching the AI Trailblazers initiative to accelerate AI adoption or doubling down on a whole-of-government cloud adoption strategy, Singapore, with its pioneering and pro-innovation approach is well poised to continue harnessing the latest technologies to create new growth opportunities in the digital economy,” said Micallef. 

“Sia joins Google Cloud at an exciting phase of our growth in Singapore, where numerous organisations are emerging from our Generative AI Innovation Sandboxes with solution prototypes that they are aiming to scale with enterprise-grade safety, security, and privacy. I’m excited that a leader with extensive industry experience and a consultative approach to solving customers’ most critical challenges will help deepen our customer and partner relationships, and ensure we continue to meet their digital transformation needs in this highly strategic and important market,” he added.
“Google Cloud has been driving meaningful initiatives in partnership with the Government - many of which are the first-of-its-kind in Singapore to democratise the benefits of AI for all,” Sia said. 

“I’m excited to be joining the company at a moment where we are not only spearheading conversations about the possibilities of AI but actively helping organisations to apply the technology in practical ways,” she added. 

“I look forward to building on the success of these initiatives, deepening relationships with our customers, and enabling them to take full advantage of AI while maintaining protection over their intellectual property, adhering to regulations around data security and privacy, and ensuring that their models and applications are safe to use,” Sia said.

Sia is a firm believer in doing good, paying it forward, and serving with purpose. She has served as an SGTech Councillor since 2018, a committee member of the Women in Tech Chapter of the Singapore Computer Society since 2021, and a board member of the Singapore Manufacturing Federation Centre for Corporate Learning since 2022. 

She is also an executive committee member of and plays an active part in FireFly Mission, a nonprofit humanitarian organization run entirely by volunteers.