Kathryn Willson

Principal, Marketing & Partner Management

Seattle, Washington

Kathryn is a purpose-driven, strategic marketing leader, a collaborative developer of engagement programs and strong partner networks, an influential storyteller, and a passionate advocate for protecting our ocean and environment. She has built her career inspiring people to take transformational action and enabling organizations to advance their missions.

ABOUT KATHRYN

Kathryn has 10+ years of experience leading global marketing and partnership programs for environmental sustainability and smart cities for Microsoft. This diverse background enables her to look at challenges and opportunities from multiple angles and then develop and implement strategies that genuinely move the needle for the organizations she serves.

Most people call her Kat. 

PROFESSIONAL AND INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

Blackstone + Cullen: Principal Consultant - Delivering contract services in modern marketing strategy, communications, storytelling, and partnerships.
Microsoft: Director, Partner Marketing and Engagement - Recruited to articulate a compelling business value proposition for the Azure IoT (Internet of Things) platform. Produced presentations, events, digital communications, and storytelling content that communicated complex technical concepts to executive audiences. Designed and built a partner network to accelerate IoT solution development. Increased partner satisfaction and grew target partner audience by a factor of 4x in one year. Led internal operations, implementing a governance structure and reporting rhythm for a rapidly growing, high-performance, geographically distributed team.
Microsoft: Director, Smart Cities Program - Led Microsoft’s flagship smart city program, called CityNext, which inspired city leaders to adopt technology solutions that make cities more sustainable. Led a global team to set vision and objectives, assess competitive position, craft strategy, develop strategic relationships, design and implement marketing and partner programs, support sales and services delivery, and drive executive reporting. Articulated complex technical concepts for business and government audiences through events, videos, blogs, presentations, collateral, web properties, and multi-channel communications. Served as the business unit's spokesperson with customers, partners, press, and analysts. Curated a deep inventory of partner solutions and customer case studies.
Microsoft: Director, Environmental Sustainability - Developed and launched the company’s first global partner strategy for environmental sustainability solutions. Co-authored the first business proposal for senior executives, justifying entry into the smart buildings market, an entirely new business development opportunity for Microsoft.
Microsoft: Director, Partner Strategy - As a member of the global Microsoft Partner Network team, led cross-functional teams to produce worldwide fiscal year partner engagement plans for six businesses. Led cross-divisional fiscal year planning and measurement. Directed the work of a 40+ member virtual team.
Microsoft: Business Manager – Chief of Staff - First joined Microsoft as a Product Manager then earned multiple promotions into a Business Manager / Chief of Staff role with accountability for business operations, executive communications, and market intelligence processes for a 25+ member marketing team. Earned multiple internal performance awards for high achievement.

PUBLICATIONS

EDUCATION, LICENSES, CERTIFICATIONS, & MEMBERSHIPS

Haas School of Business

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

University of Washington

Professional and Continuing Education

Oceanography of the Pacific Northwest

The Whale Museum

Certified Naturalist

California Architects Board

Architect

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Functional/Operational

Machine Learning
Customer Analytics
AI Strategy
Agile Methodologies
Large Scale Data Analytics
Customer Experience
Business Process Improvement
Predictive Modeling
Business Intelligence