Riot Games today announced the appointment of Arun Rajappa as country manager at Riot Games for India & South Asia as part of its expansion plan in South Asia. He has taken on the role as of February 6, 2023 and will be based out of Mumbai.
Arun joins the leadership team as country manager for India & South Asia – he will be taking charge of business development in the respective markets, leading and hiring for a team to curate hyperlocal activities and develop immersive player experiences for Riot’s growing pool of players across various titles, esports, and entertainment.
Arun is a recognized executive with over 25 years of experience in building world-class products and growing diverse, inclusive teams with a culture of innovation and excellence. He comes with a wide range of experience at leading technology firms such as Google and Microsoft. He worked as director of product for Android & Play at Google, where he focused on accelerating India’s digital transformation through market differentiated product capabilities in Android and Play. As a director of product management at Microsoft India, he led products for Microsoft Teams and Emerging Markets. Through his career at Microsoft, Arun worked on products such as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft 365, and Mobile Incubations.
Over the last decade, Arun has been a passionate champion of India and Emerging Markets at Google and Microsoft. He continues to be inspired by the energy and youthfulness of the region, and the opportunity for technology to serve people in the region and help them unlock their potential. Arun has been playing video games since the inception of Gaming Era – from Donkey Kong Jr and Prince of Persia, Doom and Duke Nukem 3d, FIFA and Forza, Indie games like Stray and Descenders, to his current favorite – VALORANT!
Arun will be the India Riot Games representative and report to Shinji Komiyama, director of country management for Asia Pacific. “India is a vibrant market with high potential for gaming, and esports is vital to our growth in the market. We are committed to building our footprint across the country, with new and exciting experiences that help us better hyper-serve our players and local community. We are very excited to welcome Arun onboard as the country manager for India & South Asia and are confident that his experience and passion for gaming will further help us identify growth opportunities to strategically expand and drive success in the Indian market,” said Shinji Komiyama, director of country management, APAC, Riot Games.
“I am thrilled to be joining Riot Games and taking on this exciting new role as the country manager for India and South Asia. I have always been passionate about gaming and look forward to working with all our incredible teams and partners to deliver a fantastic player experience which will surely define the future of gaming in the region,” said Arun Rajappa, country manager, India & South Asia, Riot Games.
India is the largest region within the Asia Pacific and one of the most active gaming communities in South Asia for Riot Games. Riot has strengthened its commitment to the Indian market with multiple initiatives and activations such as Harbor, VALORANT’s first Indian agent and Lotus, the new VALORANT map inspired by traditional Indian architectural elements. With the appointment of Arun Rajappa as the country manager, Riot aims to deliver more hyperlocal experiences which resonate with gaming enthusiasts across the country.
ABOUT RIOT GAMES
Riot Games was founded in 2006 to develop, publish, and support the most player-focused games in the world. In 2009, Riot released its debut title, League of Legends, to worldwide acclaim. League has gone on to be the most-played PC game in the world and a key driver of the explosive growth of esports.
As League enters its second decade, Riot continues to evolve the game while delivering new experiences to players with Teamfight Tactics, Legends of Runeterra, VALORANT, League of Legends: Wild Rift, and multiple work-in-progress titles. Riot is also building the world of Runeterra through multimedia projects across music, comic books, board games, and the Netflix animated series Arcane.
Founded by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill, and led by CEO Nicolo Laurent, Riot is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and has 2,500+ Rioters in 20+ offices worldwide.