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Microsoft South Africa

Ravi Bhat is a seasoned technology and business leader with more than 30 years of experience spanning finance, sales, software, cloud, and artificial intelligence. Driven by a passion for innovation, people leadership, and purposeful transformation, he combines financial acumen, strategic business insight, and technical depth to help organisations turn emerging technologies into measurable business outcomes. At Microsoft South Africa, Ravi is also the company’s AI Officer and leads a team of highly skilled professionals who design and deliver innovative cloud and AI solutions. His focus is on enabling customer success across the African continent by connecting technology investment to strategic priorities, operational value, and sustainable growth. He regularly speaks at events, to the media, and at industry forums on AI transformation, responsible adoption, and the business impact of emerging technologies. More recently, Ravi has been advising organisations, executive committees, and boards of directors across multiple industries on how to transform their businesses through AI and become frontier organisations. He works with senior leaders to shape AI ambition and governance, identify high-value use cases, build organisational AI fluency, and move from isolated pilots to enterprise-wide adoption—while keeping trust, security, responsible AI, and measurable value at the centre of the transformation. His core strengths include building high-performing teams, shaping growth strategies, and leading cloud and AI platform innovation. He is particularly passionate about developing the leadership, skills, and operating models required to embed AI into everyday work and unlock enduring business value. Ravi joined Microsoft a decade ago as Azure Product Lead. Before Microsoft, he served as General Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa at VMware and spent 19 years at IBM in a range of leadership roles, including General Manager of IBM’s Software Business in South Africa. Ravi holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree, is a qualified Chartered Accountant, and earned an MBA from Warwick Business School in the United Kingdom. He is deeply committed to mentoring young talent, guiding professionals in their careers, and sharing practical leadership and life lessons. Outside work, Ravi enjoys road cycling, international cricket, music, travel, and spending time with his family.