LinkedIn appoints Olivier Legrand as its MD for the APAC region

LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network with more than 400 million members globally, today announced the appointment of Olivier Legrand as its Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific region, effective January 1, 2016. With this new appointment, Legrand will have a dual role, continuing to serve as Head of Marketing Solutions for LinkedIn in the region.

Singapore-based Legrand, who joined LinkedIn in 2012 to drive the Marketing Solutions business in the Asia-Pacific region, is a senior executive with more than a decade of leadership, marketing and business development experience in the region.  Before joining LinkedIn, he was General Manager of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network for Asia. Legrand will succeed Hari Krishnan, who has been Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific region since January 2013. Krishnan oversaw a business in the region that continues to post healthy growth, including a member base that more than doubled to 78+ million (as at Q3 2015) in less than three years. This includes 33+ million in India, 7+ million in Australia and 15+ million in S.E. Asia.

The Asia-Pacific region, home to some 40 percent of the world’s professionals, is a key growth region for LinkedIn. More than 1,000 LinkedIn employees in 10 offices (across Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan and Singapore) serve members and clients such as Singapore Post, Toshiba, HCL Technologies, Li & Fung and ANZ.

Reflecting the diversity of the region, LinkedIn offers eight Asian language options for members, including Bahasa Indonesia, Tagalog, Simplified and Traditional Chinese. Besides using LinkedIn to connect to opportunities and share professional content, members also have access to insights published by LinkedIn Influencers, many of whom are based in Asia. The list includes Narendra Modi (Prime Minister of India),Piyush Gupta (CEO of DBS Bank), Tony Fernandes (Group CEO of Air Asia), Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (Chairperson and Managing Director of Biocon), Naomi Simson (Founding Director of Redballoon), Shinzo Abe (Prime Minister of Japan) and Andrew Penn (CEO of Telstra).

“The Asia-Pacific region continues to be a key economic player in an increasingly connected and digital world where new opportunities emerge every day,” Legrand said. “I am excited about the opportunities for LinkedIn to help our members and clients become even more successful.   While LinkedIn has come a long way in the region since establishing our presence here in 2009, there’s still a long runway for growth ahead for us.”

Krishnan, LinkedIn’s first employee in Asia will be leaving after six years at the company, during which he served as Country Manager for India (November 2009 – December 2012) before becoming the Managing Director for Asia-Pacific. He will be joining PropertyGuru Group as its President and Chief Business Officer.