SINGAPORE--Andrew Pickup has been named Microsoft’s corporate communications head in Asia-Pacific, after five years of heading marketing in the region for the tech giant.

Pickup, who has spent two decades at Microsoft, becomes the company’s corporate communications lead in Asia-Pacific.

The role was previously occupied by Stephen Forshaw, who departed Microsoft for Temasek in early 2011. The position has been vacant since Forshaw's successor Josie Taylor left the company earlier this year to join BHP Billiton in Australia.

In 2007, Pickup was named chief marketing and operations officer at Microsoft, responsible for revenue, market share and P&L performance for all Microsoft business groups in Asia-Pacific.

After overseeing ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand, Pickup’s expanded geographic remit now includes Greater China India and Japan.

“As communications Leader for Asia, Pickup will cover all of the Asia time-zone markets from India in the west to New Zealand in the east,” said a Microsoft spokesperson.

“He will be driving communications excellence across Microsoft’s Asian subsidiaries, a region that includes over 60 percent of the world’s population and for Microsoft over 54,000 partners and 14,000 employees.”

Pickup has held numerous marketing roles at Microsoft during his long tenure with the company. He joined Microsoft UK in 1992, before moving to Singapore in 2003.