BANGALORE: Microsoft today announced the appointment of Amit Chatterjee as the new managing director of its development center in India as Srini Koppolu, corporate vice president and managing director, is leaving in September 2010 after spending 21 years with the company.

Amit, who is the general manager for the Visual Studio Test and Lab Management team at Microsoft India Development Center (MSIDC), has been with Microsoft for the past 22 years and will now expand his responsibilities to lead MSIDC, Microsoft said in a statement.

He would continue to be based out of Hyderabad and will report to S. Somasegar, senior vice president, Developer Division, Microsoft Corporation.

Making the announcement, Somasegar, said: “Srini’s contributions to Microsoft’s growth in India and global R&D are immeasurable. After spending nine years in Redmond, Srini returned to India to set up MSIDC in 1998, driven by his passion for the country and his faith in its talent. Starting with only 20 people working on two products, he grew the center over the past 12 years to over 1500 people working on 20 product groups.”

He added that under Srini Koppolu's tenure, MSIDC has driven end-to-end engineering of several Microsoft products, in addition to doing shared development work for our other major products.

“The innovative work done by MSIDC teams has contributed to the filing of over 270 patents for Microsoft Corp in the past five years. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors,” he said.

Srini said it has been an extremely satisfying and fulfilling experience to contribute to a company which truly impacts billions of lives across the world.

“The experience of creating and growing the center over the last 12 years has been intense and magical. Many people played significant roles in helping build this great organization. Now that India is firmly put on Microsoft’s global development map, the time has come to pursue my passion to contribute to education and the startup ecosystem.”

Welcoming Amit, Somasegar added: “Amit’s appointment is a testament to our leadership talent here in India. Amit brings with him an excellent understanding of Microsoft, our product development lifecycles and an appreciation of the unique aspects of distributed and shared development.”

Amit, as the MD of MSIDC, will be a member of the leadership team of Microsoft India and will work with Ravi Venkatesan, chairman and corporate vice president, Microsoft India.

Commenting on his appointment, Amit said: “I am very excited by this additional responsibility. MSIDC is an important part of Microsoft’s product innovation and development lifecycle and I look forward to working with my peers and colleagues in the leadership team to grow and nurture our talent amidst the unique innovation culture of Microsoft.”