Microsoft Philippines gets first woman chief

• 18-year IT veteran spent large chunk of career at IBM, last 6yrs at Microsoft
• Big Blue also appointed its first woman boss for Philippines earlier this year

MICROSOFT Corp has appointed Karrie Capellan-Ilagan (pic) as the new managing director for Microsoft Philippines, the first time a woman will be helming the local subsidiary of the world’s largest software company.
 
Ilagan’s appointment, announced Aug 24,  comes after tech colossus IBM also named this year a Filipina, Mariels Almeda-Winhoffer, as the first female boss of its Philippine office.
 
Incidentally, Ilagan spent a huge chunk of her IT career at IBM Philippines.
 
Microsoft has been operating in the country for 17 years now, while IBM is celebrating its 75th anniversary in the Philippines this year.
 
Prior to her new role, Ilagan was enterprise sales director at Microsoft’s local unit. She will report directly to Tracey Fellows, area vice-president for Asia Pacific at Microsoft.
 
Ilagan has been with Microsoft Philippines over the last six years, but she has logged a total of 18 years as an IT executive.
 
She led the Microsoft Philippines marketing team for three years, where she oversaw marketing planning and operations, as well as the launch of Windows Vista, Office 2007, Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008.
 
Under her leadership, Microsoft Philippines increased its focus on growing the capabilities of Filipino-owned companies, the company said.
 
“I believe that there are still a large number of Filipino companies that can achieve global competitiveness by enhancing their IT capabilities that are focused on empowering people,” Illagan said.
 
“The latest data from World Economic Forum ranks Philippines 75^th globally in terms of national competitiveness. I’m certain that with the right combination of technology, education and appropriate government initiatives, Microsoft Philippines can make a valuable contribution to the development of the country,” she added. – Newsbytes.ph