(14 March 2008 6:30 pm)

BANGALORE: Microsoft Corporation India (MCIPL) has announced the appointment of Rajneesh Chopra as director - Windows Live Commercial.

Rajneesh comes from Web18 where he headed marketing for leading online destinations like moneycontrol.com, IBNLive.com, cricketnext.com and the Hindi portal Josh18.com. He was responsible for brand building, acquisition and retention of new users, search engine optimisation, creating new properties, repackaging and repurposing content for monetisation among other activities.

In his new role, Chopra will be responsible for driving the adoption of Windows Live in India. He will focus on ramping up penetration of key live web services like Hotmail, MSN Messenger, Spaces, etc especially in the commercial enterprise and partner space.

Commenting on the new appointment, MCIPL director of Windows Client Business Group Prasanna Meduri says, "Windows Live Commercial forms a crucial part of Microsoft's business. With his wealth of experience Rajneesh brings in on all aspects of online marketing and operations, he will definitely help us drive and grow this significant aspect of our business. We are delighted to have him on board and look forward to learning from his knowledge pool."

Prior to Web18, Chopra set up and spearheaded the CRM initiative of Indiatimes.com, specifically the e-commerce business, and drove marketing and operations for Indiatimes' business knowledge platform, Indiatimes Mindscape.