Google cloud taps former cisco exec as its South East Asia lead

Google Cloud announced the appointment of Ruma Balasubramanian as Managing Director for South East Asia. She will be responsible for driving go-to-market strategy, key customer and partner relationships, and operational execution in this fast growing market.

Working with a team across Google, she will also be focused on helping accelerate customers’ ability to digitally transform through data-powered innovation with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Google Workspace.

Ruma joins Google Cloud from Cisco Systems. At Cisco, she led numerous transformation initiatives and drove sales outcomes for strategic customers and partners in the banking, manufacturing, retail, higher education, and healthcare sectors across Asia Pacific. Prior to Cisco, she was Vice President and General Manager of Hewlett Packard’s Enterprise Services division in Asia Pacific.

She takes over from Tim Synan, who has transitioned to another role as part of Google Cloud’s Global Strategic Initiatives team based in Milan, Italy.

“GCP, Google Workspace, and industry-based AI and ML solutions are critical enablers for economic recovery and growth in Southeast Asia. As enterprises of all sizes look to digitise, modernise, and innovate, I’m thrilled to embark on this journey with Google Cloud to accelerate cloud adoption for our customers,” said Ruma Balasubramanian, Managing Director for South East Asia at Google Cloud.

“We’ve achieved many ‘firsts’ in Southeast Asia under Tim Synan’s leadership. Ruma joins us at an exciting time as our business continues to grow from strength to strength in one of the most dynamic regions for technology adoption. We look forward to Ruma building on this strong foundation ,” said Rick Harshman, Managing Director of Google Cloud in Asia Pacific.

Google Cloud has been on a strong growth trajectory in Southeast Asia, and counts Bank BRI, GOJEK, NTUC Fairprice Co-Operative, REA Group, Reliance Health Services, Tiki Group, True Digital and Tokopedia as customers, to name a few.

Earlier this month, Google Cloud was also named one of the cloud service providers selected by GovTech to work with government agencies in Singapore. Google Cloud had also launched its GCP region in Jakarta in June 2020, its ninth cloud region in Asia Pacific. Fintech Singapore