New marketing head for Microsoft SA

Third has been with Microsoft since 1998, where her roles have included communications specialist, product manager, marketing manager and most recently the Information Worker business group manager. She will oversee all the elements of the marketing mix and drive marketing efficacy for Microsoft South Africa and the Microsoft brand.

"The people-ready business is our vision for how successful companies harness their greatest asset - their people - by empowering them with the right software to help them improve business performance," says Gordon Frazer, MD of Microsoft South Africa.

"And driving this new approach to help businesses bridge the gap between their people and the technology in order to realise better business performance will be an exciting challenge for Heather and the marketing team."

According to Third, "people-ready" is an evolution for the Microsoft brand and a natural extension of the founding vision of empowering people through software.

"The Microsoft brand has always stood for individual empowerment through software. Today, with the right software, we believe people involved in industries such as manufacturing, financial services, retail and many others can do amazing things for their organisations," comments Third.

"A people-centric marketing strategy is synergistic to the business vision and strategy. And we see it as key to inspiring companies to think about how to leverage the powerful combination of people and software so that it will help drive results," she concludes.