
Emily Brittain is a Senior Communications Manager at Microsoft, working within the Office of the Americas Markets & Industries President. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, she crafts the stories that shape how Microsoft's largest regional business - spanning Canada, the United States, and Latin America - communicates its vision internally and externally. A Northwestern University-trained journalist with over 11 years at Microsoft, she brought a multimedia storyteller's instincts to one of the world's most consequential technology companies, producing town halls, executive narratives, and brand messaging at scale.

Kari Perez is Vice President of Gaming Communications at Microsoft, where she leads global PR and communications strategy for Xbox. She joined the Xbox team in March 2021 after a distinguished career spanning gaming, streaming, and entertainment — including VP-level roles at Netflix Latin America and corporate affairs at HBO Latin America. Multilingual and internationally experienced, Perez has become one of the most prominent communications voices in the gaming industry, issuing statements on major Xbox announcements ranging from Game Pass price changes to leadership speculation.
Puck is a New York-based digital media company founded in 2021 that covers the four centers of American power - Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Washington, and Wall Street. It treats journalists like founders, giving its writers equity and a cut of the subscription revenue their newsletters generate, and reaches readers through email newsletters, podcasts, and live events.
Bill Kristol spent four decades as a top operative and editor of the American right - chief of staff to Dan Quayle, founding editor of The Weekly Standard, co-architect of the Project for the New American Century - before becoming one of conservatism's most prominent defectors. Today he runs Defending Democracy Together and is editor-at-large of The Bulwark, where the man once called 'Dan Quayle's brain' now spends his days arguing against the movement his family helped invent. In May 2026 he registered as a Democrat.
Jeremy Nelson is a Vice President at Microsoft, leading Marketing Services, Marketing Engines & Experiences. Based in Redmond, Washington, he has spent over two decades at Microsoft - joining in December 2002 - building his career from early-stage roles all the way to VP. His focus spans demand generation infrastructure, marketing technology platforms, and the systems that power Microsoft's global marketing engine. With a background from Seattle University (class of 2000), Nelson represents a generation of Microsoft lifers who grew up alongside the cloud era and now shape how one of the world's largest technology companies reaches its customers.
Jon Alexander is a technology professional at Google, one of the world's most influential technology companies. Based in Woodinville, Washington, he works within Google's vast ecosystem spanning cloud infrastructure, AI, software development, and internet services. His LinkedIn handle 'jonpalexander' and presence on Twitter reflect an individual embedded in the cutting edge of modern technology, operating from one of the Pacific Northwest's growing tech communities near Seattle.
Liza Magee is the Chief of Staff for the Consumer Chief Marketing Officer & Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, where she sits at the intersection of billion-dollar marketing strategy and cross-functional execution. With a career built at the nexus of tech and consumer behavior, she has led marketing across Microsoft's education division, Bing, MSN, and now the company's global consumer marketing apparatus. Before Microsoft, she honed product instincts at Amazon as a Senior Product Manager in Merchandising. Based in Seattle, Magee is a strategic operator whose career tracks the evolution of digital marketing from keyword portfolios to AI-powered consumer experiences.
Lynne Kjolso is VP of Global Partner and Retail Media at Microsoft Advertising, where she leads the company's retail media strategy and global partner ecosystem. A philosophy PhD turned digital advertising executive, she has spent over 15 years at Microsoft shaping search, retail, and commerce media. Named to Ad Age's Tech Power List 2024 and The List 2025, she is a leading voice on retail media standardization, gaming as an advertising frontier, and the intersection of AI and commerce.
Michael Schechter is Corporate Vice President of Search Growth and Experiences at Microsoft, where he has spent over two decades shaping how people discover information on the web. A computer science graduate of the University of Maryland, he has been at the center of Bing's evolution - from leading the captions feature in its early days to orchestrating the AI-powered transformation of Bing with Copilot Search. Known for his candid voice on search industry trends and his willingness to engage publicly on topics like citation transparency and AI reliability, Schechter represents the rare executive who can speak both engineer and user fluently.
Nancy Lesueur is a seasoned technology leader with over 20 years of experience, currently serving as Chief of Staff for the Corporate Vice President of Customer Experience Engineering at Microsoft Security. Based in Sammamish, Washington, she bridges strategic leadership with operational execution at one of the world's most critical security organizations. Her career spans roles in risk intelligence, fraud and abuse prevention, and enterprise program management, with previous positions at FiveBy Solutions and Murphy & Associates. Known for her collaborative leadership style and exceptional listening skills, Nancy is also an advocate for inclusive workplace cultures, having championed Microsoft's Indigenous Employee Resource Group partnerships during a visit to Aotearoa New Zealand.
Peter Cray is VP Strategy & Operations for AWS Sales, Marketing and Global Services at Amazon Web Services, where he oversees go-to-market strategy, business and sales operations, competitive strategy, and field marketing across 122 subsidiaries worldwide. With nearly three decades in enterprise technology, he spent 15 years at Microsoft in increasingly senior roles - including COO & Chief Business Officer for Microsoft China & Greater China Region - before joining AWS in 2022. He reports to Greg Pearson as part of AWS's integrated global sales organization alongside peers Dave Levy and Robert Chu.
Ross Ortega is VP of Product Management at Microsoft, currently leading Discovery and Communications initiatives. He previously built a $1 billion portfolio of Azure networking services - including ExpressRoute, Virtual WAN, Application Gateway, and Web Application Firewall - and then led Azure for Operators, Microsoft's 5G and edge computing platform for telecommunications providers. Before Microsoft, he co-founded Consystant Design Technologies and served as President and CTO of GraniteEdge Networks. A career technologist with roots in embedded systems and networking, Ortega has spent over two decades at Microsoft shaping how enterprises and telecoms connect to the cloud.
Song Zou is Vice President of the Edge Growth Team at Microsoft, where he leads the growth strategy for one of the world's most widely-used browsers. A 25-year Microsoft veteran, he has shaped the user experience of nearly every major Windows release - from MSN Money to Vista's desktop to Windows 7's taskbar and Start menu - before steering the pivotal migration of Microsoft Edge to the Chromium engine and building the microservices infrastructure behind it. Trained as an electrical engineer at Georgia Tech and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, he is a rare operator who bridges deep systems-level engineering with executive-scale product growth.
Toby Bowers is Vice President of Commercial Cloud & AI Marketing at Microsoft, based in the Seattle area. With over 20 years at the company, he leads market strategy across Microsoft's Cloud and AI product portfolios, including business and technical audience marketing, global events, and partner ecosystem engagement. He is the architect of Microsoft's 'Frontier Firms' initiative - a framework identifying and showcasing organizations reimagining their operations through AI - and was a driving force behind the ISV Connect program that grew to 700+ independent software vendors. A prolific blogger on the Microsoft Cloud Blog, Dynamics 365 Blog, and Power Platform Blog, Bowers is one of Microsoft's most visible voices on AI-driven enterprise transformation.