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Toni Townes-Whitley on Empowering the Public Sector

Toni Townes-Whitley
Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Worldwide Public Sector and Industry

As corporate vice president of Worldwide Public Sector at Microsoft, Toni Townes-Whitley is responsible for leading a team of over 2,000 sales professionals serving government, public safety, education, and non-privatized healthcare customers and partners in more than 100 countries worldwide.

From enabling and transforming smart cities of the future, to helping government officials take advantage of technologies to deliver higher quality citizen services at lower cost, to aiding scientists in developing new treatments for improving patient care, to providing school administrators with a more holistic picture of the factors that influence dropout rates, Townes-Whitley is passionate about creating positive societal and global impact. By aligning Microsoft public sector programs and organizational priorities with the new United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Townes-Whitley drives advancement and change in keeping with Microsoft’s new mission, “empowering every person and organization on the planet to achieve more.”

Prior to joining Microsoft, Townes-Whitley was president of CGI Federal, where she was responsible for a portfolio of more than $1 billion, leading 6,600 employees in over 70 countries to deliver greater value to US Government civilian, defense, and intelligence sectors. Prior to her role at CGI, Townes-Whitley held several management roles at Unisys Corporation leading global public sector systems integration and the Federal Civilian group, where she achieved 500 percent revenue growth and doubled profitability.

Townes-Whitley is a graduate of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School and has received certifications from Wharton Executive Education, New York University (NYU), and the Performance Management Institute. A writer and presenter on topics of IT innovation and application, Townes-Whitley has collaborated with organizations such as Council for Excellence in Government, the Minority Enterprise Executive Council, Industry Advisory Council, Princeton University, NYU, and numerous others.

She sits on the board of directors for United Way, the Women’s Center of Northern Virginia, and Leadership Foundry—an organization that prepares women to serve on corporate boards. She also continues to support the US Peace Corps and is a former volunteer who served three years as a village teacher in Central Africa.

Townes-Whitley and her husband have five children and two grandchildren. In her free time, Townes-Whitley enjoys writing and is finishing her first screenplay.