Beyond the Blue Badge

How to win the pursuit of diverse talent A diverse workforce is key to a healthy, vibrant, successful and innovative organization, yet many companies claim they can’t find the talent or don’t have access to it. In this episode of our Beyond the Blue Badge podcast, our host Eddie Pate sits down with diversity talent acquisition expert Cody Horton to discuss how you can fish for diverse talent to fill the pipeline, what your company may be doing wrong and practical tips for an inclusive hiring and onboarding process. Cody is a veteran of the United States Navy where he was a Lieutenant Commander. He did multiple stints at Microsoft first in enterprise support before focusing on staffing. In 2016, Cody founded Diverse Recruiting Experts to help employers attract and retain a diverse workforce.

With the climate crisis looming, more people are examining how they invest their money and what impact that has on the planet — both good and bad. Sustainable investing that benefits all stakeholders is becoming more prevalent. In this Beyond the Blue Badge episode, host Peter Proud talks with fellow alum Richard Peers about nature’s role in finance. Richard spent 23 years at Microsoft, at the intersection of finance and technology. After leaving in 2019, he founded Responsible Risk, which consults financial services and technology companies on sustainable finance.

How to start saving the planet for generations to come Climate change is at the forefront of our world’s issues, and it’s going to take all of us to move the needle. Kathleen Hebert has dedicated her post-Microsoft career to fighting climate change, an issue she’s made her purpose. Her multi-pronged approach to change includes volunteering, investing, learning and making changes in everyday life that can have lasting impact. In this episode of Beyond the Blue Badge, host Paul Shoemaker sits down with Kathleen to discuss why and how she’s tackling climate change, the environmental responsibilities that different organizations and businesses have, what the future of climate change looks like for all of us and how we can contribute. Kathleen was a corporate vice president at Microsoft from 1989 to 2003. After leaving the company, she spent 19 years at Social Venture Partners, deep diving into the world of philanthropy. She’s now a venture partner, board member and investor at E8 Ventures, which is investing in clean tech for environmental impact. She also serves on the board of the Clean Energy Transition Institute and The Nature Conservancy.

Pursuing social impact at work and tapping connections to spark greater change. In this episode of Beyond the Blue Badge, Microsoft Alumni Network Executive Director Ali Spain sits down with fellow alum Susan Koehler to discuss how everyone can pursue a social impact-focused career, the evolving sustainability industry and how partnering with connections can spark larger impact. Susan held multiple roles at Microsoft over ten years, including working on social initiatives related to child safety and trustworthy computing. Susan transitioned to sustainability when she took a role as chief marketing officer at Footprint before recently joining Persefoni, a climate disclosure and carbon management solution where she can combine her passions for tech and sustainability.

Leadership in turbulent times, navigating a complex industry and taking care of employees and customers  John Mangelaars is chief executive officer at Skyscanner. Headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, Skyscanner is a travel search engine which sees near 100 million visits per month. At Microsoft, John spent time as general manager of the Netherlands and led advertising and online in Microsoft Europe. After 23 years at the company, John left to become CEO of Travix International and then joined Skyscanner in 2021 — mid pandemic.  In this episode of our Beyond the Blue Badge podcast, John sits down with host Peter Proud to discuss leadership during crisis, the importance of taking care of people and customers and why he never lets himself get too comfortable.

Dan Lewis is CEO and founder at Convoy, a transportation logistics company based in Seattle which is now valued at nearly $4 billion. Dan worked at Microsoft for three years in product management and marketing for Hotmail and Windows, but he was always interested in startup life. By tapping his network and taking advantage of opportunities, he was able to launch Convoy in 2015, which quickly took off and now has 75,000 trucking companies on the platform. In this episode of our Beyond the Blue Badge podcast, host T.A. McCann and Dan discuss his startup journey, including disrupting an industry, building confidence and trust, securing investors, taking risks, make-or-break decision points, and adapting to change.

Allie Attenwoode loves data. As a diversity data guru, she’s on a mission to empower others to utilize diversity data to inspire change at their companies. Allie joined Microsoft right after college and started in university recruiting before moving to senior recruiting operations coordinator. After Microsoft, she became a senior business intelligence engineer of inclusion and diversity analytics at Amazon. Now, she’s CEO and Co-founder of Tenty Diversity Analytics and an entrepreneur in residence at Neowork Ventures. In this episode of our Beyond the Blue Badge podcast, host Eddie Pate sits down with Allie to discuss why diversity data matters, how to collect and analyze it to pinpoint problems and some of the biggest mistakes that companies are making today.

Eugenio Pace is founder and CEO of Auth0, a company that builds identity management solutions. Eugenio started as a consultant at Microsoft in his native Argentina before relocating to the Redmond headquarters as an FTE. He stayed for 10 more years before exiting to start Auth0, which gained unicorn status before being acquired by Okta for $6.5 billion in May 2021. In this episode of our Beyond the Blue Badge podcast, host T.A. McCann talks with Eugenio about how he built his company from the ground up, Microsoft’s influence on Auth0, and his advice for others wanting to launch their own company.

In honor of Microsoft Give Month, we’re re-releasing our inspiring conversation with Microsoft Alumni Network Integral Fellow and TAF Executive Director Trish Millines Dziko. In this episode of Beyond the Blue Badge, Paul Shoemaker talks with Trish Millines Dziko how promoting diversity during her tenure at Microsoft became her fulltime job when founded Technology Access Foundation. Learn how her upbringing influenced her passion for preparing children of color for a career in technology, her new book and what’s next for TAF.

Ross Hunter joined Microsoft in 1983 and was one of the company’s first program managers. He spent 17 years at the company before getting involved in the public sector. He became a representative for the Washington State Legislature and now is the secretary of the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. In this episode of our Beyond the Blue Badge podcast, host Paul Shoemaker talks with Ross about the early days of Microsoft, transitioning to the public sector, and the important work he’s doing now to foster early upstream change for children and families across Washington state.