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Neelam Dhawan
Neelam Dhawan
Neelam Dhawan
Profile
Neelam Dhawan is the Managing Director of Hewlett-Packard India. She has
countrywide responsibility for revenues and profitability and ensuring the greatest
leverage from HPs Services, Personal Systems and Imaging & Printing businesses. With a portfolio that extends to offshore activities, BPO, Software Engineering, Research and IT Services, Neelam is focused on shaping the company's overall business
agenda and leading its strategy and corporate development efforts to make HP the
most admired company in India. Previously, Neelam was the Managing Director of Microsoft India, a position she held from 2005 to 2008. During her tenure, she sharpened Microsoft's strategic focus and
improved its operating efficiency and execution, as well as its financial performance and
customer focus. Prior to this assignment, Neelam held a variety of successful leadership positions in leading Indian IT companies, including HCL and IBM.
Early Career
Neelam holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from St.Stephen's College, New Delhi. Masters in Business Administration from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University. Dhawan kicked off her career with HCL and in 1996, she joined IBM, where she was vice-president, personal systems group and was also on the company's board of directors. In 1999, she joined Hewlett Packard from IBM India. At HP, she was vice-president of the customer solutions group where she focused on enterprises, the public sector and small and medium businesses for all computing products and services.
She is a veteran of the tech industry. She is the first lady of Indian IT. Dhawan is a mascot for all the women in the IT industry. Her accomplishment has been extraordinary.
She follows the rule of exception She has full confidence in her team If there is a
mistake, she steps in Neelam relaxes with puzzles and crosswords She enjoys
cooking Sunday meals She loves London, for its crowds, familiarity and the countrys rich cultural history For her successful career she gives credit to her extremely supportive family Currently she has the responsibility for revenues and profitability and ensuring the greatest leverage from HP`s Services, Personal Systems and Imaging & Printing businesses.
Dhawan entered the sales and marketing team in HCL-and stayed there for 14 long years. Neelam started her career with the FMCG companies like Asian Paints and Hindustan Lever. She was unable to be a part of the marketing and sales as the organization didn`t prefer a woman to head the particular domain. She then had become the Vice-President of Customer Solutions Group before joining Microsoft. She also worked for four years in IBM and six years in Compaq.
She has a good record of maintaining customer and partner relationships. She has worked in Companies like HCL, IBM and is currently the MD at Hewlett Packard. At Microsoft India, she was responsible for growing Microsoft`s products and services and played a key role in driving the company`s partnerships and strategic alliances.
She was the Managing Director of Microsoft India, a position she held from 2005 to 2008. During her tenure, she sharpened Microsoft`s strategic focus and improved its
her elder daughter Naina, now 16, was born, and a supporting husband
Atul Dhawan, a partner at Deloitte Haskins).
made managing director, Microsoft India, in 2005, it still came as a surprise. A pleasant one. Its
hard to find too many women who have zoomed up to the top in IT. Our priority is to become relevant to one billion Indians, is what Dhawan is known to have said when she took over the reins. And she is pulling out all stops to ensure that. She is now all set to
foray into Project Bhasha, a programme that focuses on hastening computing in local languages. Prior to Microsoft, this hardware pro was vice president, Customer Solutions Group, HP India with additional responsibility for strategic alliances and partner relationships. This stint was for about six years, starting 1999. She's done stints with IBM and HCL before that. Dhawans recipe for success: You need to have ambition, staying power and organising ability. And she also credits her supportive family for her rise to the top. Microsoft Corporation India will see a change of guard with Neelam Dhawan (taking over as the new managing director).
Other Achievements
She has been featured in the Fortune's annual global list of 50 Most Powerful Women in Business for 2009. Neelam held a variety of successful leadership positions in leading Indian IT companies, including HCL and IBM. Neelam Dhawan has raced to the top of the Indian IT worldBack in the 1980s when she started working for HCL Computers, there were very few women entering information technologyThough the rate has improved now, women still account for less than 20 per cent of the Indian IT work force. She carved a career with wires, and later, went wireless with PCs and equipment that touch the soul of consumers. The 51-year-old considers HCL's ShivNadar her mentor and Jack Welch, Louis Gerstner and Bill Gates her role models. In an interview with CD, she talks about her loud rave sessions, work-life balance.
The Icon
As the head of Microsoft India, Neelam Dhawan is an icon for
Dhawan is a mascot for all the women in the IT industry where the
proportion still remains at a dismal low of around 18%.
makes Dhawan tick? According to a former colleague in HP, "It would be difficult to
find any single unique quality which has catapulted her to the top. It is a mixture of so many qualities - her knowledge of technology and the market place, her ability to interact with people and organisations." In the industry, she has reputation of being aggressive and a go-getter. She believes that rather than technology, it is people ultimately who create value for a company, customers and shareholders
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