Toni Townes-Whitley

As president of U.S. regulated industries, Toni Townes-Whitley leads Microsoft’s business with public sector and commercial regulated industries (education, financial services, government and healthcare). Responsible for more than 4,900 employees and a budget of approximately $15 billion, she is one of the top women leaders at Microsoft and in the technology industry, with a track record of accelerating and sustaining profitable business and building high-performance teams.

In addition to leading a sales organization, Townes-Whitley is helping steer the company’s work to address systemic racial injustice. The company focuses internally on representation and inclusion and externally on using technology to tackle prevailing societal challenges. Working across the customer and partner ecosystem, Townes-Whitley is also focused on applying technology innovations to create social impact.

Townes-Whitley serves on the boards of the PNC Financial Services Group, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, the United Way Worldwide, and the Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative. She is an advisor to the Women’s Center of Northern Virginia, and a past president and chair of Women in Technology. She continues to support the U.S. Peace Corps, for which she volunteered for three years as a village teacher in Gabon. She has helped launch new initiatives at Microsoft with the Athena Alliance and Gender Fair, which, respectively, prepare women for corporate board roles and rate companies on their fairness practices for leadership, employee policies, advertising and philanthropy. She has also sponsored the Blacks & Africans at Microsoft (BAM) employee resource group.

Townes-Whitley is the recipient of numerous technology and leadership awards. She earned her B.A. in public policy and economics from Princeton University and has received certifications from Wharton Executive Education, New York University and the Performance Management Institute.