Vanessa Sorenson - Growing businesses and creating industry depth with Microsoft

Into the Cloud - Umbrellar powered by Pax8

Umbrellar CEO Dave Howden and Vanessa Sorenson, Chief Partner Officer A/NZ and Managing Director Microsoft NZ, catch up on all the dramatic changes since their last podcast chat - her roles, the pandemic, new data centres for the region and the integration of Australia and New Zealand in the Microsoft world. There's a lot to unpack!

They discuss how Microsoft is increasingly focused on making it easier for partners to grow their business through improvements to Marketplace, IP Co-Sell and the April 2022 launch of Microsoft Founders Hub, bringing people, knowledge and benefits together at every stage to solve startup challenges.

Vanessa also shares her passion for corporate citizenship initiatives such as 10K Wahine, Global Skills Training Initiatives, growing Maori and Pacific Leaders through partnering with TupaToa.

Vanessa says New Zealand punches way above its weight - but we're not so great at sharing our success stories. With the creation of A/NZ and the soon-to-be-online regional data centre, now is the time to get louder, take more risks and build our industry depth. Take a listen.