Google APAC chief steps down

Google’s Asia-Pacific president Karim Temsamani is to leave after 11 years with the company in both Asia and the US.

Temsamani led Google’s APAC sales teams for the last five years, and his departure opens up one of the company's top positions in the region. In a statement to Campaign Asia-Pacific, a Google spokesperson said: “We can confirm that after 11 years, Karim has decided to leave Google to take on a new challenge.”

Google plans to conduct an internal and external search to replace Temsamani. In the meantime Philipp Schindler, the company's SVP and chief business officer, who is based at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, will assume leadership of APAC operations.

Temsamani was a strong proponent of expanding Google’s presence in APAC, and oversaw the development of new products that originated in the region before being rolled out globally, in a shift highlighting the region’s growing influence outside Google’s Silicon Valley home.