Microsoft's country manager for sales and marketing in Ireland, Ms Ann Riordan, will retire in January after 10 years in the role. Ms Riordan (52) will hand over to Mr Joe Macri in July. She will stay with Microsoft until January 2001 to manage the transition.

Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday, Ms Riordan, said she plans to take some time to travel when she retires and will consider taking on community affairs projects on a voluntary basis in the future. "I will be looking for a big challenge in the community affairs area," she said. She says she has no plans to work for anyone other than Microsoft and is looking forward to her retirement.

Ms Riordan joined Microsoft in 1990 and established its sales and marketing office in the Republic in 1991. She had previously worked in the information technology industry in Ireland and Britain. Ms Riordan has served on the Information Society Steering Committee since 1996 and is a member of the Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council.

She has also led Microsoft's community affairs programmes in Ireland, which aim to increase the accessibility of information technology skills. These include projects such as Microsoft's Libraries Online, which gives free access to the Internet to educational and business software and to personal computers.

In 1996, Ms Riordan received the Microsoft Global Summit Award in recognition of her achievements.

Her successor, Mr Macri, (37) is marketing manager at Microsoft Ireland. Since February 1999, he has been responsible for setting up Microsoft's marketing team in Ireland. Before that, he spent three years at Microsoft UK, where he was responsible for establishing the company's small-to-medium enterprise business division.

An Australian, Mr Macri joined Microsoft in 1996, having previously worked for Centre-File, which is a division of NatWest Bank.

Microsoft established its Irish operations in 1985 and currently employs 1,500 staff at the Leopardstown and Sandyford Industrial Estates in Dublin.