Why I Joined Zoom and Our Commitment to India
By: Velchamy Sankarlingam
Tags: Zoom Video Communications, India, Zoom

I am less than a month into my new role at Zoom, and I couldn’t be more proud to be here. Zoom is one of the most talked about companies in the world because it is playing a vital role in enabling human connection during a global health crisis.

I am excited to continue the important work of scaling collaboration and cloud technology to help Zoom lead the charge in connecting the world now and in the future.

I have watched Zoom scale its infrastructure overnight to allow millions of users across the globe — from schools to business to governments — to stay connected and operational. I was born in India, from the town of Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, and now live in the United States. I am grateful to Zoom for allowing me to stay connected with my three sisters, the rest of my extended family and my friends in India.

One of the most important factors in my decision to join Zoom was the opportunity to work with Eric and the incredible team around him. It’s clear that at the core of Zoom is Eric’s vision. Eric and I worked together at WebEx, and I can confidently say that he is one of the most innovative, most trustworthy people I know. I admire his honesty, humility, leadership style, and commitment to doing what is right rather than what is easy. This ethos is reflected across the entire company.

Part of being a leader and innovator in technology involves embracing adversity and working with your team to use this adversity to continually improve. I have witnessed firsthand how everyone at Zoom from top to bottom is driven by its mission: to build the world’s most frictionless and secure video communications platform. Zoom understands its obligation to its users and takes security and privacy incredibly seriously. Nowhere is that more evident than in the significant platform enhancements Zoom made during its 90-day plan. Over the course of those 90 days, Zoom released over 100 new features focused on privacy, safety and security, committed to and started building an end-to-end encryption offering for all users, enhanced its bug bounty program, launched a CISO Council, made several key strategic hires, and committed to expanding its engineering presence in the U.S., among several other initiatives.

Zoom’s Firm Commitment to India

Another core reason I joined Zoom is because of the opportunity to help scale the business, including in international markets. One of those markets is an incredibly important one both to Zoom and to me, personally — India.

I’m proud that Zoom is helping Indian businesses, government agencies, communities, school teachers, and other users stay connected during this global health crisis. Zoom’s presence in India is represented on the ground by an office in Mumbai, as well as two Data Centres (one in Mumbai and one in Hyderabad).

We know first-hand the valuable technical talent, creativity, innovative spirit, and entrepreneurialism that exists in India. Three of Zoom’s top executives are of Indian descent: Aparna Bawa, Chief Operating Officer; Sunil Madan, Corporate Chief Information Officer; and myself. These characteristics are why many global technology companies, including my former employer VMWare, choose to invest in India as a key regional operational hub, and we are looking to expand our service to as many of India’s 1.3 billion people as we can reach.

We also see great potential in the Indian business community as prospective Zoom customers. From large multinational brands with Indian operations and subsidiaries, to MSME enterprises looking to expand, as well as home-grown start-ups, India is a key player in global business and a key market for Zoom. We can work with them to deepen connectivity to a global market undergoing significant transformations and opening opportunities for India’s business and people.

We do recognize that as we continue to introduce ourselves to the Indian market, there has been some confusion about the facts as it relates to Zoom. We want to work through these. Some of the misconceptions are disheartening, especially those about Zoom and China. Zoom has been clear about its identity: Zoom is a U.S. company, publicly traded on the NASDAQ, founded and headquartered in San Jose, California. And like many global technology companies, Zoom has offices in China operated by subsidiaries of the U.S. parent company.

We look forward to engaging with more stakeholders in India in the coming months to support key priorities such as Digital India, StartUp India and Skills India, as well as introducing them to Zoom. We also have plans for significant investment in the country over the next five years and beyond, including expanding our footprint and hiring more top talent in the region. India is and will continue to be an important market for Zoom, and we are excited to build on the exciting opportunities we see in the region.

I had a chance to speak with Aparna Bawa, our COO about my first three weeks at Zoom and my background. Watch the video.