Microsoft poaches from AWS to announce Darren Hardman as new EMEA industry leader

Hardman is set to join the company on 2 May

Microsoft had appointed former AWS UK&I lead Darren Hardman as the EMEA industry leader and corporate vice president.

He will be reporting to Microsoft EMEA president Ralph Haupter.

In his new role, Hardman will lead the team in advancing the strategy and execution around "key industry customers" in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

A seasoned innovation leader, prior to AWS worked as Avanade's EMEA President.

Hardman's appointment comes as Microsoft aims to accelerate efforts to support and co-innovate with industry customers and partners.

Microsoft said that Hardman's appointment, is part of its commitment to helping enterprise customers transform confidently and quickly to address these challenges.

In the face of continued economic headwinds and market uncertainty, industries have turned to digital technologies to build resilience and agility while achieving greater efficiencies.

In addition, the push for greater sustainability, the increasing importance of supply chain resilience and changing employee expectations are critical variables spurring businesses to become even more data-led.

Microsoft is also aiming to continue evolving its industry cloud offerings, engineered to decrease time to value and empower customers to transform on their own terms. Spanning several sectors including retail, manufacturing, FSI, health and non-profit - Microsoft's industry clouds bring the Azure platform and Microsoft tools together with common data models, workflows, APIs, and industry-specific components and standards.

"I am absolutely thrilled to step into the EMEA Industry Lead role at Microsoft," said Hardman, newly appointed Microsoft EMEA industry lead.

"The approach Microsoft is taking to help industry customers transform perfectly aligns with my own ethos around the importance of maintaining a total focus on customer success.

"It's unbelievably exciting to see the co-innovation that's being driven with businesses like Mercedes, retailer Żabka and Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company.

With today's economic pressures, the urgency for entire industries to transform at scale has never been greater. We need to truly understand a customer's marketplace, the challenges they face and the opportunities that have yet to be unlocked.

"I look forward to hitting the ground running and work with this amazing team."