Emma Williams

Emma Williams is Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Office Modern Workplace Transformations. She is responsible for planning and building Office 365 solutions, built on Microsoft Teams, for industry verticals such as Healthcare, Financial Services, Government, Retail, and Manufacturing.  Emma is a strong creative leader who has always worked to put customers at the center of product design and strategy. She has been at Microsoft for 16+ years, and in Industry for 27 years overall.

At Microsoft, she has been a proven leader in products such as Visual Studio, Xbox, and Bing.  Most recently, she led a cross-company effort to develop ethical UX principles for AI products and created deep guidance for its application for all UX designers, product managers, and engineers at Microsoft.

Emma is a noted internal and external evangelist for the importance of embedding empathy into Microsoft products and has a passion for better serving those under-served by technology. At Xbox, Emma led the focus for broadening appeal for the Xbox to be ‘more than just games.’ At Bing, Emma drove building features in Bing for women & mothers; which was highlighted in Search Engine Land. In her current role in Office, Emma is leading the focus on the world’s first line workers – creating experiences that empower them to communicate, collaborate, and integrate with industry-specific business workflows.

Prior to joining Microsoft, she worked in Silicon Valley at BMC Software leading its flagship enterprise management product, Patrol Enterprise Manager, and was formerly the Chief Product Officer at Intuition Publishing, an international e-learning company specializing in global investment banking.   

Emma holds several third-level university and post-graduate qualifications, including an M.A. honors from Trinity College University, a B.A. honors in English & Classics, diplomas in Art History, Archival Studies, and UNIX software.  She has lived in 6 countries and reads 13 languages