Thank you everybody for joining me today. My name is Kathleen Mitford and I am the corporate Vice President of Azure Marketing here at Microsoft. And I am so excited to be with all of you here today.So the way that we'll run this session is I'll spend the 15, 1st 15 minutes just talking a little bit about my career about what it's been like working as a woman in tech. And then we'll spend the last five minutes with questions. So please feel free, put your questions in chat and I'll get to as many of them as I can at the end and any I don't get to during this session, I will follow up with you. So again, thank you so much for, for joining. I thought I'd start with talking a little bit about my um my career in technology. I actually have a very untraditional path um as a technology leader, I actually started my career as a menswear designer. So for the first five years of my career, I was a menswear designer in New York, designing young men's clothing and uh never did. I thought I would actually end up where I am today, I wanted to be a fashion designer. From the time that I was seven years old, went to school for fashion design.

And then, you know, as I mentioned, I was um uh I worked as a designer and I had an opportunity as uh to help the company I was working for implement a new technology that helped you design. Um Of course, all on the computer and then share those designs with your um with your manufacturers again, all through technology. And it was a really exciting time in my career because I had as a, as a younger employee at the company, I was probably at that time, 25 years old, I will tell you how old, how old I am now. Um But I had an opportunity to lead a really important um project for, for the company. And what ended up happening was I spent so much time on the phone with the technology company that they said, why don't you come and join us? And that was actually my, my starting tech, my first transition from design into technology was actually an easy transition because I was going into um designing technology for the fashion industry, which was very, very exciting. So I did that for a number of years. And then I went to a much larger organization where I went from designing technology for the fashion industry to all types of companies, auto airspace and design electronics and high tech, the, the medical and I was at that last company for 15 years and in 15 years at a company, I had an incredible opportunity to have a lot of different roles.

Like when I talk about designing technology, I started in technology as a product manager, I was in strategy and corporate strategy. I led partnerships, I led mergers and acquisitions. Um where I really got deep into technology was I led a 2000 person engineering or organization.

And uh and here I am now at Microsoft, where I, as I mentioned, I, the corporate vice president of Azure Marketing. And what that means is I'm responsible not only for the marketing of Azure, but for what is our long term strategy. How are we going to make sure that we win working with my um my peers across the different different functions here? So a couple of things that I've learned during my um during my very long tenure in technology here about my career is number one, let your curiosity lead you for the roles that I had other than fashion design. I wasn't technically trained for them. But I was curious and a curious learner. I spent a lot of time talking to people, reading books, taking online classes, taking in person classes to really, you know, learn the trade for that new role that I was looking to explore. And the other thing that I learned during my career is not only to be curious, but don't be afraid to take these new chances. It's never too early or too late to change the path you're on at your career. And I'm actually, you know, experiencing this right now, I'm one year at, at Microsoft and uh you know, never did. I think that I would leave where I was previously to take on this amazing role uh leading as a marketing for Mi Microsoft.

And I'm super super excited to be here at Microsoft. So now I wanna talk about my passion for women in technology and where my passion for women in technology came. Um For many, many years, I was the only the only woman in the room. And I can tell you, you know, now I'm comfortable being the only woman in the room. Luckily, I'm not as often now the only woman in the room, but uh earlier on in my career, it was a little bit scary being the only woman in the room. And, you know, being the one who, who was different than everybody uh than everybody else there. So I want to make sure that my daughter, I have a 10 year old daughter that she never has any of the experiences that I had. And when I say experiences, you know, these aren't bad experiences and people treating me treating me badly but not having that cohort, not having that person that I could look to that. Um you know, within the same, the same room with me, the room with me. So that sparked my passion for helping um making sure that we're talking about this and making sure that we're not only getting women in technology, but starting at that very early age, you know, getting the spark of um encouraging women to actually explore uh careers in in stem, we still have a long way to go, but I do see a lot of change happening.

I was super excited a couple of months ago where I was asked to be on a panel with a couple other engineering leaders from Microsoft. And I think this was the first time in my career that it was an all woman panel, a all women technology panel um which was really excited to see to see that change. So, you know, we're making progress. Um today, only 20% of all tech jobs are held by women, but we're heading towards 40% of women in tech positions in the next 5 to 10 years. And I'd actually like to see that move up closer to, to 50%. So that's why it really is a, a passion of mine. One of the things that I've learned is that we can learn a lot from those who came before us. Um And some of my fondest memories uh and I, and I'll start this, I'll never forget the first when I started my la at my uh last company, you know, many, many years ago, 15 years ago, actually, 16 years ago. Now I remember my first day and I went into a meeting and I was the only woman there and it was, you know, a woman of about, there was a meeting of about 20 people and I was the only woman and I left that and I was like, oh, wow, this is kind of interesting being the only woman.

And then slightly after that meeting, um a senior vice president from the company came and sat in my office. And first of all, it was like, oh wow, here's the senior vice president coming and sitting in my office without a scheduled meeting. And she came to me and she said, hey, Kathleen, I just wanna welcome you to the company and I want to let you know that I'm here for you, that I'm here as an ally for you. I'm here to answer any questions that you have. I'm here to help you navigate the systems here. And that was so helpful to me to have that ally who was a much, you know, if she was very senior leader at the company, come and have a conversation with me and let me know that she was there for me and she was going to help me, me, me navigate. So when we come to conferences like this, at this women tech conferences, you know, we get the, the we get the opportunity to come together to share our experiences and most importantly to learn from each other. And you know, talking about allies, it's very important for us to have allies to have that peer or maybe not even a peer. In this case, it was a senior executive, somebody else that we can talk to, but also to have mentors and to have sponsors.

Let me talk a little bit about the difference between a mentor and a sponsor. A mentor is somebody that you can go to and ask questions and get guidance. A sponsor is somebody that is committed to your career and helping you get that next position, helping you get that promotion and being an advocate for you. I have had, you know, the great opportunity that I've had very, very many mentors and sponsors over the years, I've had two sponsors that, you know, I really credit to helping me get to where I am today. And I say helping me get to where I am today because it's all about you and you have to get to you where you are. But they really helped to advocate for me um to number one within the or I was at, you know, make sure that I was, that people knew me when there were opportunities. But then also to work with me on what did I have to do to make myself um a good candidate for positions when they came up? And these were things about looking at what type of skills was I missing?

Um What type of roles do I need to take to get to my ultimate ultimate career goal? Now, when we talk about mentors, um you know, you have to find the right match with a mentor, you know, it. And as I mentioned over my career, I've had multiple mentors, but the ones that were most meaningful for me were the ones that actually saw me in action. They saw me presenting at meetings, they saw me leading discussions, they saw me putting strategies together and could give feedback for me on how I was doing in the moment I had mentors that um were people I didn't know that well, but were very senior executives in other companies.

And they gave me a lot of good feedback and guidance on what they've learned in their career. But for me on giving me feedback and getting to know me, it wasn't as actionable as somebody who again saw me every every day also in working with mentors. One of the things that's been really helpful for me, both as a mentor and as a mentee is having a plan with each one of my mentors I would share with them. Here's what my development plan is. Here are the two or three things I'm working on this year that I want you to give me feedback on and also not only sharing with them, these are the things I'm working on getting their feedback. Are they the right things? So then when we have our mentor mentee discussion, it's rooted in um in things that we can actually provide feedback on and see. What progress am I making month, over month during those discussions? So how do we pick out an effective uh effective mentor is again looking for those common, looking for that commonality, who is the person that's going to be able to give me what I need? What do I need? Do I need feedback from somebody who's seeing me in action every day? Do I wanna learn from somebody else as to how they've gotten in their career?

So think about what it is that you're looking to get from a mentor before going to somebody, how have I um become a mentor, you know, really, two different ways. One and people ask me, you know, people will and don't be shy to ask somebody, you would be surprised, you know, if they say no, they say no, that's OK. So people ask me and I also volunteer when I see somebody that um that, you know, I think has, has great potential or where I feel like I could add some value to them. I volunteer and say, hey, if you're looking for a mentor, I'm happy to spend to spend time with you because as I mentioned earlier, as women in technology, we need to support each other. Now, um here we are uh at a women in tech conference. If there's one thing that I could leave you with is that I want you to use your most valuable asset. It is your voice, use your voice to advocate for yourself. Because if you don't advocate for yourself, nobody else is going to advocate for you. So don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to share where you want to go in your career path.

Don't be afraid to ask for the raise or to ask for the next step or ask, what is it that I have to do to, to be able to get to that um to that next level. So to conclude, before we uh before we go to questions, a couple of things that I wanna leave you with. So three things I want to leave you with, I already mentioned about using your voice. But uh two other things is let your curiosity lead you. I would never be at this dream job that I have at Microsoft now leading Azure if I wasn't curious. So be curious, stay curious. And I just mentioned this too related to being you uh to using your, your voice is be your own advocate. So be an advocate for, for yourself. So with that, I wanna say thank you all for attending today and let me get to the questions that we have here. Um OK, so let me make sure I can see all of these questions here. Sorry, give me just a minute. Um What is your suggestion to people who are still finding, finding mentors? So I would say on that is think about what you're looking for in a mentor. Um You know, as I mentioned, for me, I, for me, I know that when I'm working with a mentor, it's somebody that I need people to give me feedback based upon action uh about seeing me in action.

Um So think about what it mean, what you're looking for in a, in a mentor, I'd also say, don't be afraid to ask somebody. The worst thing they can do is say is say no. Um let's see. So the question is since many people are now switching over to product program and project management, what advice would you give to early careers who have limited work experience and are making switches to these popular fields? It seems like there are very few opportunities for entry to associate level roles. Well, I can tell you that when I'm looking to hire people in my organization at entry level, I expect that I am going to have to do some training for them. And when I'm looking at early in career employees, I look for passion, I look for passion um around the role that they're trying to get into. I look for passion for the company and why they want to work for the company and I look for and I look for drive and I'm happy to train them because we do expect that early in career, there is some level of, of learning that needs to be done. One of the things that I did early in my career and I continue to do today is to be curious about that role that I wanna take, read books about it.

Um take online classes, speak to speak to others that have that role so that when you are interviewing, you know, you're not being fake about knowing everything, but you're sharing that, hey, in my own time, I've actually, you know, explored whatever I can to come up to speed on this.

Um Let's see, I don't see any other questions in here. Let me just go see if there were any at the bottom. Um OK. Yeah, I don't see any other questions on here. Um So I'll for the last two minutes here. Um I'll just talk maybe a little bit about um women in technology in STEM. I mentioned this earlier. Um Like we know that there is a gap in women in technology, especially at senior positions. Um But I wanna make sure that we are encouraging um the youngest of Children and women to actually explore careers in, in technology. So not only do I have a passion for women in technology but have a passion for stem as well and for education and how do we make sure that they are that we're sharing with, you know, little girls out there. Um, and little boys that, hey, Stem is and it's a great technology and it's something that, that you can do. You know, I'll never forget when my daughter was born and she was in preschool and she came home from school and she was, you know, she was very upset because she wanted to do something.

And one of the little boys in the class told her you can't do that because you're a girl. And I said to her, I said, Victoria, you put your hands on your hips, you stand up tall and you can do anything that a little boy can do. And then next time that little boy tells you that you tell him that. So I think we have to not only expose um girls to technology at young age, but also if they do um have situations where they're told they can't do something, let them know that yes, you can do it. So I think we're at a time here. I just want to say thank you for everybody that took the time to listen to the session. If you dialed in earlier in the week when I was having some tech challenges, thank you for coming back again. I apologize about, about that. But I'm super excited that we had the opportunity to connect today. So thank you and have a great day.