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Tracey

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Tracey Trewin

Tracey Trewin is a self-proclaimed geek and a successful General Manager of the Microsoft CSE team. She helped build the team charter to rebuild Microsoft’s relationship with developers by connecting with them on the issues that matter to them in a way that meets them where they are. The CSE developers are inspired to get up in the morning to help other developers succeed. She finds empowering people to solve problems is what motivates her the most.

One of the projects she is most proud of was working with the then startup, TadaWeb, on the refugee crisis. When Microsoft first started working with them, they had 0 customers, and now they are used by several intelligence agencies across the world. Her team has often had a strong pull towards humanitarian aid and have worked with numerous governments and conservationist. Tracey knows people who believe in the project they are working on more committed and will extend themselves to create success. What started out as a small team has grown to over 400 people. The CSE team works with some of the largest companies and governments in the world to solve some of the biggest global challenges. Tracey has worked hard to help build a team that empowers change and success around the world. But that wasn’t always the case; she very nearly decided to be a career server in Waikiki at the Hilton Village. The job paid well and allowed her to live in beautiful Hawaii. Her mom encouraged her to do more and got Tracey her first programming job creating software for land use permitting. It took almost five years for her to make more money than she did as a cocktail waitress in Hawaii.

After she graduated college, she got another programming job at a startup in California building development tools and line of business apps. After leaving that job, she decided to start her own company creating custom business apps, beginning her long career in building tailored solutions for individual customers. Tracey ran her own company for 12 years before a customer in Bothell asked her to come work on location for six weeks. She said yes only after they had agreed to ship her new horse up to Washington, and she then ran her business from Seattle for three years. By then, she had her second child and decided that she either needed to find more customers in Seattle or work for a company that provided health insurance and other benefits.

She joined Microsoft when they were just starting to focus on the enterprise. At the time, they didn’t have customers relying on them for business apps or platform technology. After some time on various teams, John Shewchuk and Satya Nadella recruited her to build a small group to reconnect with developers as they had in the past. She created a team to specifically re-engage with startup communities and innovative enterprises. The engagement model they built was the beginning of the CSE team today, who now works with developers all across the world.

Tracey has done everything from competitive horseback riding to starting her own business! Follow her on twitter to see what she does next, or message her on LinkedIn! Maybe you want to work with her? Apply through CSE and join her team!