Akumina Brings Microsoft GM Akerkar to Board of Directors

Akumina has named General Manager of Sales Excellence for Microsoft’s Worldwide Enterprise and Partner Group Sanket Akerkar as the latest member of its board of directors, the company announced this week.

As a board member, Akerkar will also help Akumina build its strategic sales and go to market strategies surrounding the software solution vendor’s flagship InterChange SharePoint as a Service offering, according to the announcement. He will continue to serve in his current role at Microsoft in addition to working with Akumina’s board.

“We are lucky to have someone with Sanket’s experience and network within the Microsoft ecosystem working with us to help change how the world works with SharePoint,” said Ali Riaz, chairman of Akumina’s board, in a statement. “InterChange will help ensure SharePoint projects succeed not just technically, but from a user experience and adoption perspective, and we are excited to have Sanket’s assistance in developing this story for the broader Microsoft community.”

Akerkar has served in a number of roles at Microsoft over the past 12 years, including stints as managing director of Microsoft India as well as chief evangelist and vice president of the company’s Developer and Platform Evangelism division. Akumina said it hopes to benefit from Akerkar’s experience across a wide swath of Microsoft initiatives, including his work with channel partners, OEMs and its system builder community.

“I am looking forward to advising on Akumina’s go to market strategy and providing guidance in development of a global channel program,” said Akerkar. “The user experience InterChange delivers will help many of Microsoft’s customers and partners increase end-user satisfaction and drive adoption of Microsoft technologies.”

In July, Akumina named former Carbonite (CARB) channel chief David Maffei as chief revenue officer, responsible for managing the company’s direct and channel-focused revenue operations.