Srini Koppolu

Corporate VP and Founding MD of Microsoft India Development Center
First Chairman of HA

Srini has many years of experience in developing innovative products, driving global R&D initiatives, building large scale organizations grounds up. He was involved in many strategic initiatives throughout his 21 years career at Microsoft, and he holds more than 20 global patents. Srini worked in Redmond for 9 years as an R&D leader developing technologies for Windows and later developing Office 95 and Office 97.

Srini moved to India in 1998 to set up Microsoft India Development Center (MSIDC). Over the next 12 years, Srini evolved MSIDC from a start-up to Microsoft’s largest product development center outside of the US with 1500 plus employees developing core products and technologies that impact millions of customers across the world. He built a strong brand for MSIDC as an organization that innovates and makes a global impact and made it the primary destination for India’s top talent! Srini played a major role in driving Microsoft’s global software development strategy partnering with leaders of China and Israel development centers and with many senior Microsoft executives.

After leaving Microsoft in October 2010, Srini started advising and investing in start-ups, and he is the first President of Hyderabad Angel Network. He made angel investments in more than 10 start-ups. He is currently the Chairman of SETU Software Systems developing www.veooz.com, one of the many start-ups he invested in. Srini is very passionate about building a strong R&D talent in India and has started an initiative called Mission R&D (www.missionrnd.com) to prepare CS/IT engineers for product development roles. Srini also has been the Chairman of the International School of Hyderabad (www.ishyd.org) advisory board and helped transform ISH into one of the top international schools in India.