Growing up near the British Royal Navy's Polaris submarine base in Faslane, Scotland, Andrew always thought he would become an archaeologist. It was a battle between the heart and the brain, as McBean puts it. "In this case, unusual for me, I went for the brain." And the money.

However, McBean's background was a breath of fresh air from the MBA-graduated Microserfs (after Douglas Coupland's eponymous novel). Born into a humble navy family, Andrew grew up on naval bases in Scotland and England. He spent seven years in Portsmouth, where his petty-officer father was stationed. In a highly class-conscious nation (a modest middle-class friend of mine, an Oxford - Balliol College - graduate, said the upper class could sniff out your class from 500 metres away), McBean was proud of his background. "My mother came from a working-class family," says McBean matter-of-factly.

But a public-school education, paid for by the navy, opened up doors for him. The "lucky" McBean was not a bright student: "I wasn't very good with school. You could say that I was not academic." Hanging out with smokers, drinkers and hard-knockers in the "D" class - "A" being the best and "E" the worst - McBean left school without the necessary qualifications for university. "If I sit in the classroom, and someone's talking to me, it drives me nuts," he says.

At 20, after completing a two-year higher diploma in computer studies, McBean landed a job as a programmer near Reading, England, "next to the Thames", for a year. For three years, he worked primarily on dBase, a computer programme used in database-management systems. He then worked for a start-up that would become Symantec UK.

Constant exposure to the British gloom and rain were taking its toll on McBean: "On the 40th consecutive day of cloud, I decided to leave." Sunny California? After all, that's where Silicon Valley is found.

"There are actually two places with the most continuous sunshine in the world. One is San Diego. The other is Johannesburg," says McBean. Like David Livingstone, the Scot explorer and first European to see Victoria Falls, McBean headed for Africa.

McBean is a purveyor of Microsoft's no-boundary learning of the future. Having been to the Ethiopian-Kenyan border on an expedition in his mid-20s, the decision came without much hesitation. McBean sold his house and possessions and uprooted to South Africa with just a few industry contacts. He landed a job at Lotus Software, the company credited for encouraging the adoption of the PC through its breakthrough spreadsheet application, Lotus 1-2-3.

Not long after IBM bought Lotus in 1995, McBean joined Microsoft. "I knew that to really get on in the software industry, I'd have to move to Microsoft," he says.

He was offered a job, but they would not reveal to him his exact duties and responsibilities until the day he started work.

His nine-year stint to date at Microsoft has taken the Scotsman to Japan, Indonesia and finally Thailand. He has been living in the Kingdom for five years now, soaking up the culture. "You can only truly learn about a place if you live there," he says.

Having just piloted its new operating system at the Lumpini Public Library, the software giant is set to launch its much-anticipated Windows Vista next year. Yet Microsoft's businesses are wide and varied. In India, it plans to offer its Windows Live technology, with news, entertainment, chat, e-mail and search-engine services, through telecom provider Hutch. On the niche-software front, it has recently bundled its XPS portable display format to compete with Adobe Acrobat.

With such assorted products and services, how does Microsoft focus and on what?

"That is a perennial challenge," admits McBean. It is a question most staff ask. He said the company was focused on IT-related education. "And actually, that's made it easier to define yourself and be able to know exactly what you can and cannot do," he says, adding that his job is to keep his teams from the hullabaloo that would distract them from their customers.

Talking business with McBean is like talking Harry Potter with a 10-year old. Not that he is childish, but rather his childlike enthusiasm for learning is infectious. He said Microsoft employees' main duty was to spend time with and learn from their customers - an inquisitive mind ought to be second nature for all Microsoft staff.

And learning should not only take place within the company. McBean is not ashamed to admit he owns an iPod. "There is nothing wrong with using these products and understanding what makes them great," he says.

Many important challenges await McBean, not least surpassing the projected 27-per-cent growth next year. Piracy is these little piranhas that eat away, bit by bit, Microsoft's profits and very being. McBean says many consumers have phoned the company to complain about software they thought was genuine but which turned out to be pirated.

"We need to help consumers protect themselves," says McBean, adding that this is part of social responsibility. As part of the learning process, McBean wants to know why does such a place like Pantip Plaza exist?

To combat social malaise, Microsoft introduced an entry-level Windows XP two years ago, retailing at Bt1,500 apiece. It is part of Microsoft's strategy to move away from the one-size-fits-all attitude of the past, says McBean.

The Scotsman abhors anything extraneous or extravagant that would hinder the company's operation. Once, his boss felt ill, and he had to pick up Bill Gates at the airport. And the Microsoft supremo actually asked for a simple van rather than a luxurious German limousine, says McBean. A far cry from the world's richest man's mansion overlooking Lake Washington.

So did you take Bill Gates to Pantip Plaza the last time he was here in Thailand?

"No," McBean chuckled. "I'm sure he knows of the place."

Ki Nan Tsui

The Nation