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.

Ed Fries created his first video game when he was only in high school. He landed a job at Microsoft in 1986 and helped develop Word and Excel before running the games group. Ed was crucial in Microsoft’s breakthrough into the gaming industry. In this episode of our Beyond the Blue Badge podcast, host Rich Kaplan sits down with Ed to discuss his journey through fast-growing Microsoft in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the trials and triumphs of building Microsoft’s gaming group, and the most successful products he’s been a part of including Xbox and Halo.

Mylene Padolina spent a decade at Microsoft helping shape diversity and inclusion initiatives, primarily surrounding disability inclusion and youth. Now, she’s a consultant through MPadolina & Associates and works with various organizations on disability inclusion to support all. In this episode of our Beyond the Blue Badge podcast, host Eddie Pate sits down with his former colleague to discuss her time at Microsoft, what made her who she is today, and how you can get involved to make the workplace inclusive and help everyone reach their full potential.

Daniela Braga is founder and CEO at DefinedCrowd, a fast-growing Seattle startup that that’s working to make artificial intelligence smarter. Daniela worked at Microsoft for almost seven years in multiple program manager roles in three different countries, including her native Portugal. In this episode of our Beyond the Blue Badge podcast, host T.A. McCann sits down with Daniela to deep dive into her two decades working in cognitive technology, taking the leap to found her own startup, life as a female founder, and advice for early-stage entrepreneurs.