I knew I was going to have a much bigger impact when I became the Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s Global Partner Services team leading partners across all of Microsoft’s ecosystem. It was an opportunity to touch 300K tech organizations globally across all of Microsoft’s commercial product portfolio from the very smallest VAR to the largest Global System Integrator and all of the Independent Software Vendors that are partnered with and utilizing Microsoft’s platforms. Not only was this a tremendous opportunity to impact the way Microsoft went to market across all customer segments and a defining moment for Microsoft to make a stand as a leader in cloud technology, but there was one more opportunity that meant just as much to me: recruiting more women into the high tech field.

This role gave me the opportunity to infuse one of my core passions into my work; I was a global voice out to 300K tech organizations about recruiting, hiring, and promoting women, and driving greater gender diversity in a field that is outperforming the market in growth and underperforming in closing the gender gap. It was an opportunity to be a very visible female leader developing programs and sponsorships that would shine a light on this issue and put remedies in motion.