Michael Rawding
Vice President, Unlimited Potential Group
 |
Vice President Michael Rawding is responsible for leading Products & Solutions Management, Partners, Business Development and Field Execution for the Unlimited Potential Group at Microsoft Corp. This group is charged with spearheading efforts to close the digital divide by creating new products and programs that will help bring social and economic opportunity to the estimated 5 billion people not yet realizing the benefits of technology. Through the expansion of the Microsoft® Unlimited Potential program, the company is renewing and accelerating its long-term commitment to use technology, training and partnerships to transform education, foster local innovation, and enable jobs and opportunities to sustain a continuous cycle of social and economic growth for everyone.
In his most recent role, Rawding was the vice president for special projects in Microsoft Corporate Affairs. Before that, he served as corporate vice president of MSN® Global Sales and Marketing.
Before coming to MSN, Rawding was the president and CEO of Microsoft Japan. There he was responsible for all of Microsoft’s sales, marketing and support activities in Japan and managed more than 2,000 employees. His team was recognized as Country of the Year by Microsoft in 2004.
Prior to taking his position at Microsoft Japan, Rawding oversaw operations of the Asia Pacific Region, which, in addition to Japan, includes Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, People’s Republic of China, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Rawding came to Beijing initially in May 1998, assuming responsibility for sales, marketing and support in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Earlier in his career, Rawding was director of the Horizontal Markets Group in the Application Developers Customer Unit, where he was responsible for driving Microsoft’s strategies and relationships in critical enterprise application software segments. Rawding also has served as director of industry marketing and industry marketing manager for the financial services sector.
Previous to joining Microsoft, Rawding spent five years with Unisys in product marketing and major account sales capacities. Before joining Unisys, he worked as a management consultant for Interdevelopment Inc., a small, privately held consulting firm specializing in cross-border technology transfer between European and U.S. companies.
Rawding has a bachelor’s degree in political science and German from Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt. He enjoys tennis, reading, travel and spending time with his family.
