Tech giant Microsoft has temporarily changed leadership in the Ukrainian-Baltic region. After the dismissal of Leonid Polupan, Yevhen Kaganovsky is taking over as head of the company’s business in Ukraine and the Baltics, for whom this is a promotion from the role of regional manager in Central Europe.
Tech giant Microsoft has temporarily changed leadership in the Ukrainian-Baltic region. After the dismissal of Leonid Polupan, Yevhen Kaganovsky is taking over as head of the company’s business in Ukraine and the Baltics, for whom this is a promotion from the role of regional manager in Central Europe.
According to Forbes Ukraine, Kaganovsky will be responsible for working with Microsoft’s partner ecosystem, public sector, and commercial customers in the region. The company describes him as a person with deep experience in digital transformation, customer service, and team building, who will accelerate the implementation of AI-based solutions in Ukraine and the Baltics.
The new acting CEO has an atypical background for a tech giant: he first received a philological education at Kyiv Linguistic University, and then a master’s degree in law and economics at KNEU. Before joining Microsoft, Kaganovsky worked at Samsung and IBM, where he was responsible for HR and later headed the Project Execution Center, coordinating hundreds of specialists.
In 2019, he joined Microsoft’s Ukrainian office, heading the public sector. At the end of 2024, Kaganovsky became the head of the CSU division in Central Europe, which includes 16 countries. In his LinkedIn profile, he emphasizes his experience working with both government agencies and big business, and his participation in the implementation of national digital strategies.
The changes in management come against the backdrop of the departure of Leonid Polupan, who worked at Microsoft for eight years and headed the business in Ukraine and the Baltics for almost three of them. During this time, Kyiv, according to market estimates, has risen in the hierarchy of the CEE region: in particular, the Ukrainian office was given responsibility for neighboring countries, and the company itself became one of the key partners of the state in matters of cloud infrastructure and cybersecurity. After leaving Microsoft, Polupan headed the system integrator Seeton, associated with NEQSOL Holding.
A separate dimension of challenges for Kaganovsky is related to the fact that Microsoft provided Ukraine with hundreds of millions of dollars in aid during the full-scale war, a significant part of which was formed by cloud services and cyber defense solutions. The new leader is expected to maintain both the pace of support and the increased visibility of Ukraine within the corporation so that Kyiv does not turn into «another market» again in the large list of CEE countries.
Microsoft has been operating in Ukraine since 2003 and is building a business model through a wide partner network. Before the full-scale war, the number of partners, according to Polupan, reached 1,000-1,200 companies that localize products for the needs of banks, energy, industry and other industries. For Kaganovsky, this means a double task: simultaneously developing a partner ecosystem, keeping a focus on AI solutions and proving to headquarters that investments in the Ukrainian and Baltic markets make strategic sense even during a war.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how the former head of Microsoft in Ukraine , Leonid Polupan, told how Copilot is spreading among Ukrainian users and what solutions to expect in the near future.
