Microsoft-owned professional networking platform LinkedIn on Monday announced the appointment of Ashutosh Gupta as Country Manager for India.

Gupta's appointment will be effective September 2, 2019, the company said. He will be replacing Mahesh Narayanan, who was Country Manager for India from January 2019 to June 2019. 

Gupta brings with him two decades of experience in the Internet and IT & Software Services industries across firms such as Google, Cognizant, and Infosys. 

He joined LinkedIn in 2013 to lead LinkedIn's Marketing Solutions (LMS) in India, where he scaled the enterprise business. 

In 2016, he moved to Singapore to build LMS' Online Sales Organisation (OSO) for Asia Pacific and China. 

"India is a strategic market for LinkedIn, and its developing economy and dynamic jobs market is ripe with opportunity for LinkedIn to add value for our members and customers," Gupta said on his appointment.

"I also look forward to forging deeper government relationships to inform policy-making with actionable data on jobs and skills, and make LinkedIn an integral part of the national agenda," he added.

Gupta will report to Olivier Legrand, LinkedIn's Managing Director for the Asia Pacific region and will join the company's APAC senior management team. 

“As a sophisticated sales leader who has worked across regions, Gupta is highly skilled at building businesses at scale and evangelising the value of LinkedIn to members and customers. We look forward to partnering with him to foster the India brand,” Legrand said in a statement.

He will relocate to India from Singapore to assume his new responsibility. 

"In addition to his country manager role, he will continue to lead the LMS Online Sales Organisation for Asia Pacific and China," said LinkedIn, which has 57 million members in India.