Businessweek reports:

Tim Chen took over as head of Microsoft's (MSFT) Chinese business in 2003 with one of the toughest assignments of any multinational executive in China. The company was suffering from rampant software piracy and had rocky relations with Beijing's leaders, who didn't trust the U.S. giant and were promoting plans to develop a local operating system as an alternative to Windows. Microsoft had plenty of internal problems, too, with the company enduring several embarrassing defections of top China execs, including one who wrote a tell-all book in Chinese that was a big seller.

Chen, who today announced that he was leaving Microsoft to become head of the National Basketball Assn.'s Chinese operation, helped to turn things around forBill Gates and Steve Ballmer. He cut deals with Chinese PC makers such as Lenovo (LNVGY), getting them to install legit copies of Windows on the machines they sell to Chinese government offices, companies, and consumers. Chen, 50, improved relations with the Chinese government so much that President Hu Jintao had dinner at Gates' mansion during his U.S. trip last year before traveling to Washington to see President George W. Bush.

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http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/sep2007/gb20070919_742506.htm?chan=globalbiz_asia+index+page_top+stories