Nikesh Arora is search giant Google’s new worldwide sales and business development chief and the top ranking desi at the company.

Nikesh, who was previously chief of Google’s International Operations, replaces Omid Kordestani who has taken on a new role as Senior Advisor, Office of the CEO and Founders.

Google said today that in his new role as President of Global Sales Operations and Business Development, Nikesh Arora would have responsibility for all Google’s revenue and customer operations as well as marketing and partnerships. 

Nikesh Arora
(Image: Google)

Background
Nikesh spent the last four and a half years building Google’s European operations. 

Before joining Google, Nikesh was chief marketing officer and a member of the management board at T-Mobile, where he’s said to have spearheaded all product development, terminals, brand and marketing activities of T-Mobile Europe.

Nikesh started working with Deutsche Telekom in 1999 and founded T-Motion PLC, a mobile multimedia subsidiary of T-Mobile International. In his pre-Deutsche Telekom days, Nikesh held management positions at Putnam Investments and Fidelity Investments in Boston.

Nikesh holds a master’s degree and CFA certification from Boston College, an MBA from Northeastern University and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Institute of Technology in Varanasi, India.

Good Q1 for Google
Meanwhile, Google had a good first quarter, given the recession and all the pessimistic analyst talk about the search giant having a bad quarter.

In the first quarter ended March 31, 2009, Google reported a net profit of $1.42 billion on revenues of $5.51 billion (up 6% year-over-year but down 3% sequentially).

Other key metrics:

* Cash and cash equivalent of $17.8 billion at the end of the quarter
* 20,164 full-time employees as of March 31, 2009, down from 20,222 full-time employees as of December 31, 2008
* Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of the company’s AdSense partners, rose 17% over the first quarter of 2008 and 3% over the fourth quarter of 2008