It was February 24, 2005. Software giant Microsoft India appointed a tough lady to lead. While appointing Ms Dhawan as its managing director, Microsoft top boss in India Ravi Venkatesan said, "Neelam Dhawan is highly respected in the industry and has an excellent track record of managing customer and partner relationships. She brings an exceptional understanding of the changing needs of customers and partners and a wealth of experience in delivering solutions." With 22 years of experience in the IT industry, Dhawan's appointment was not exactly unexpected. She replaced another veteran, Rajiv Kaul, who moved to a key role in the company's headquarters at Redmond in the United States.

Graduating in economics from St Stephen's College, Delhi, she got her degree in management from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University. Dhawan kicked off her career with HCL and in 1996, she joined IBM, where she was vice-president, personal systems group and was also on the company's board of directors. In 1999, she joined Hewlett Packard from IBM India. At HP, she was vice-president of the customer solutions group where she focused on enterprises, the public sector and small and medium businesses for all computing products and services.

She was also responsible for strategic alliances and partner relationships. What makes Dhawan tick? According to a former colleague in HP, "It would be difficult to find any single unique quality which has catapulted her to the top. It is a mixture of so many qualities - her knowledge of technology and the market place, her ability to interact with people and organisations." In the industry, she has reputation of being aggressive and a go-getter. She believes that rather than technology, it is people ultimately who create value for a company, customers and shareholders.

She is among the very few women in a top Microsoft position and she knows what her job entails. Immediately after taking up her post, she drew up a detailed agenda for meeting everyone within the company, after which she planned on meeting customers and others. "I am excited with the opportunity to lead Microsoft India at a very interesting time and look forward to combining my experience with the unique depth of technology and resources of Microsoft to drive customer success." This was how Dhawan described her future role in the world's biggest software company.