Coworking is a weekly segment where we spotlight Tech Brew readers who work with emerging technologies. Click here if you’d like a chance to be featured.
How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in tech?
I have two jobs at Microsoft: First, I’m a vice president in Microsoft’s Office product group, where I am accountable for the PowerPoint business, which includes PowerPoint on all major platforms, from Windows and Mac desktop machines to the web to mobile devices like iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. Perhaps more simply, it means if you have a bad experience using PowerPoint, that’s my fault, but if you have a great experience using PowerPoint, it means I hired the right team.
Second, I’m accountable for Microsoft’s Bay Area region, which includes about 4,500 employees representing engineering, marketing, sales, and venture capital. We’re spread across multiple campuses, including our newly built Silicon Valley Campus in Mountain View, California. Teams in the region contribute to virtually all aspects of Microsoft’s business, from consumer products to commercial products, from new products like Microsoft Designer to established products like PowerPoint, from software to hardware. We’re on the cutting edge of the tech industry, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence.
What’s the most compelling tech project you’ve worked on, and why?
Years ago, I was part of a small team at Microsoft who was advocating changing the underlying file formats for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to something new. Our goal was to be able to deliver entirely new capabilities to customers, and many of those capabilities could not be expressed in the existing file formats (e.g., we wanted to allow for larger worksheets in Excel by supporting more rows; we wanted to raise the quality of slides by enabling new graphic capabilities in PowerPoint). Changing file formats was, and continues to be, one of the most complicated changes for products that have the scale of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. But we were also advocating moving from proprietary file formats to those based on international standards to maximize data interoperability. This was a significant change in how we had been approaching file formats.
The project itself was technically challenging. And because we wanted this to be based on international standards, there was another new dimension of complexity: Working with standards bodies around the world. Each standards body was made up of various experts, all with a slightly different perspective on how this should work.
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To be successful, we needed to not only navigate several complex technical topics, but also learn how to work in a system where sometimes nontechnical issues were the more complicated hurdles to overcome.
What technologies are you most optimistic about? Least? And why?
I’m most optimistic about artificial intelligence, especially that which allows you to create your own personalized visualizations. It’s incredible to see artificial intelligence create text for you, but it is another thing to see it create unique photos of exactly what you intended using your creativity and prompts. I saw the impact of this firsthand when my 10-year-old daughter was selling Girl Scout cookies this year. She used generative AI technology like that found in Microsoft Designer to create one-of-a-kind photos to drive her cookie-selling social media campaign on Instagram. Even a year ago, it would have been impossible for her to do this with the level of personalization she was able to create with this AI. It drove home the transformative impact AI was going to have on all aspects of society.
The one technology I’m least optimistic about is the underlying technology behind electronic voting machines. Voting—one of the most important activities in a robust, well-functioning democracy—is something that must be protected. With the introduction of electronic voting machines, we’ve introduced doubt into the larger election system, and this doubt has occasionally been manipulated for political gain. I often wonder just how different things would be if we were to go back to paper ballots.
What’s something about you we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile?
As a little boy, I wanted to be an astronaut. I was a child of the 1970s and ’80s, and I grew up watching space shuttle launches and landings. I collected everything space-related and read everything I could about the space program. I was such a space geek that I even convinced my fifth-grade teacher to let me teach my class a section on space.
What do you think about when you’re not thinking about tech?
When it comes time to relax, I start cooking. I love throwing big dinner parties or neighborhood get-togethers. For many, this may sound stressful, but for me, it’s my happy space. The more complex, the better. Trying a new recipe for the first time for 30 people, not a problem. Nothing brings people together like food.