Carolyn Byer

Human Resource Head Microsoft Canada

As HR Lead for Canada, Carolyn works closely with President Kevin Peesker and the Leadership Team to develop and execute the people strategy for Microsoft Canada. She leads a team of HR professionals focused on developing Microsoft’s talent, organization and culture to accelerate the company’s own business transformation and impact the broader Microsoft ecosystem.

A strong business leader with proven experience in the C-suite and across all levels of management, Carolyn is a champion of Microsoft’s “learn it all” and growth mindset” tenets and is committed to continuing to grow Microsoft’s diverse and inclusive workforce.  

Prior to joining Microsoft, Carolyn served in a variety of HR disciplines globally at IBM for more than 17 years. She has a Bachelor of Psychology from University of Guelph and a Masters in Human Resources from Rutgers University.  Outside of work, Carolyn focuses on spending time with her family and can typically be found on a soccer field or a lake.  


Agenda Day Two, Monday, March 23rd, 2020

8:05 AM Reshaping Your Company Culture can Improve Your Bottom Line

As the world of work evolves and changes, culture is a hot topic and an important focus area for companies going through a transformation.  The revitalization of Microsoft under CEO Satya Nadella is one of the great business stories of the 21st Century.  At its heart, it is a story of how to change a culture.
 
In this session, Carolyn Byer will share some of the key cultural changes Microsoft needed to make in order to adapt to a rapidly changing environment and reconnect with some of the founding principles that had powered its initial growth and made it such a dominant force in technology and business. This process emphasised learning and innovation and has built the culture on a growth mindset, obsessed with the customer, committed to diversity and inclusion and making a difference. This change has involved both clear decisive leadership from the top and change driven by employees.  Gain a better understanding on how Microsoft has embarked on this transformation journey, what they learned about culture along the way, and the benefits the organization is already seeing.  

Check out the incredible speaker line-up to see who will be joining Carolyn.

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