Microsoft appoints new commercial and partner business director

Microsoft New Zealand has announced the appointment of its new commercial and partner business director, Sarah Bowden.

Bowden will succeed outgoing Director Phil Goldie on his return to Australia.

Bowden already has almost a decade of Microsoft relationship management experience under her belt, having joined the business in 2010.

After holding several roles within the team, including corporate accounts manager for public sector, partner sales executive and small and medium business lead, she was appointed small, medium and corporate business lead for New Zealand in 2017.

She previously spent 11 years at Fuji Xerox.

"The past eight and a half years have been an amazing journey for me. During this time I've learnt so much about myself, our people, customers, partners and solutions," Bowden says.

"I'm so excited about where Microsoft is heading, particularly the opportunities opening up for our partners. I'm looking forward to seeing the impact our partner ecosystem, both local and global, will have on the future success of both our business and theirs.

Bowden says implementing Microsoft's new Small, Medium and Corporate business model in New Zealand was one of the highlights of her career.

She worked hard to ensure the new model was a success for Microsoft's customers and partners.

"When I joined Microsoft we had one team working with our customers and a separate team working alongside our partners, but under the One Commercial Partner model we have greater alignment and synergy through our Channel Managers and Partner Marketing Advisors.

"Our partners are now supported to build and market their solutions and our account teams have a deeper understanding of our Partners' solutions and are actively selling with them."

In her new role, Bowden will be responsible for helping forge new relationships with tech partners, manage existing relationships and act as a tech evangelist on Microsoft services and platforms such as Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics 365. Microsoft New Zealand's OCP ecosystem includes more than 1,200 major New Zealand partners.

Microsoft New Zealand managing director Barrie Sheers says Bowden had made an impression from the first.

"I distinctly remember meeting Sarah for the first time and being super impressed with her energy, infectious enthusiasm, professionalism and sheer exuberance for her role," he says.

"Her talents were obvious then and she has developed ever since. She well deserves this appointment and I can think of no one better to be taking the reins from Phil.

Bowden will be starting her new role on April 1, 2019.

Recruitment is now underway for a new small, medium and corporate business lead.

"My focus now is building on our successes today, looking at how we go faster in developing and deploying new products and go deeper to find solutions that have real relevance to our customers," Bowden says.