Teresa Carlson

Summary

Teresa Carlson is a Corporate Vice President and Executive-in-Residence at Microsoft[1] and the Non-Executive Chair of KnightSwan,[2] a special-purpose acquisition company. Previously she held the position of President and Chief Growth Officer of Splunk and Vice President for Amazon Web Services' worldwide public sector and industries businesses. Prior to working for Amazon, Carlson was Microsoft's Vice President of Federal Government business.

Teresa Carlson
Teresa Carlson, photographed in Washington, DC, 2018
Carlson in 2018
Born
EducationWestern Kentucky University (BS, MS)
TitleCorporate Executive Vice President and Executive-in-Residence of Microsoft, Non-Executive Chair of KnightSwan
Children2
WebsiteTeresa Carlson on Twitter

Education edit

Carlson was born in Somerset, Kentucky.[3] She graduated from Western Kentucky University with a bachelor's degree in communications and a master's in speech and language pathology.[4]

Early career edit

Early in her career, Carlson worked in health management consulting at NovaCare Corp, and then at KeyFile Corp., a document and workflow management company.[3] At Lexign Inc., she led the company's relaunch after a merger in her role as worldwide vice president of marketing and business development.[4] In 2002, Carlson began working at Microsoft.[5] She eventually became vice president in charge of Microsoft's $1.7 billion federal business,[4] before departing for Amazon Web Services in December 2010.[5]

Amazon Web Services edit

At Amazon Web Services, Carlson founded the company's public sector business in the role of vice president of worldwide public sector operations.[6][7] She is also the head public policy advisor for the public sector business.[4] Her work includes traveling to meet with government leaders and academic administrators to promote cloud computing.[7][8] She has also created diversity initiatives at Amazon for women and minorities working in the technology industry[7][9] and has partnered with academic institutions on programs to prepare students for careers in technology.[10][11][12] In 2013, Carlson oversaw a deal for Amazon Web Services to provide cloud services to the Central Intelligence Agency.[13]

In March 2020, Carlson led Amazon Web Services to launch the Diagnostic Development Initiative to aid in the development of coronavirus diagnostic tools.[14] By 2020, she had grown the public sector business to include more than 5,000 government agencies, 10,000 education institutions, and 28,000 nonprofit organizations as its clients. That same year, her role expanded to add regulated industries like healthcare, financial services,[15] energy services, utilities and telecommunications to her responsibilities.[16][10] In June 2020, Amazon Web Services created a new unit for aerospace and satellite customers under Carlson's leadership.[17][18]

In April 2021, Carlson announced she would be leaving Amazon Web Services to become president and chief growth officer of Splunk.[13]

Carlson is on both for-profit and nonprofit boards, including incident management platform PagerDuty,[19] healthcare platform developer Commure[20] and nonprofits including the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children,[21] Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, The Economic Club of Washington, DC, and the White House Historical Association.[22]

Honors edit

Fast Company included Carlson in its 2010 list of the most influential women in technology.[23] Washingtonian named her one of Washington state's 100 most powerful women in 2011[24] and included her in its 2019 Tech Titans list.[25] Federal Computer Week included her in its 2013 Federal 100 list[26] and gave her one of its Eagle awards in the same year.[27]

In 2014, she was ranked #24 by Business Insider in its list of the most important people in cloud computing.[28] In 2016, she received an Ellis Island Medal of Honor.[29]

Carlson was named Executive of the Year in 2016 for companies greater than $300 million by the Greater Washington GovCon Awards, which is administered by the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce.[citation needed]

Personal life edit

Carlson is married and has two children.[3]

References edit

  1. ^ "Teresa Carlson returns to Microsoft". FedScoop. 2022-06-01. Retrieved 2022-06-02.
  2. ^ "SPAC KnightSwan Acquisition files for a $200 million IPO, targeting tech-enabled solutions". Renaissance Capital. 22 December 2021. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  3. ^ a b c Bach, James (9 October 2015). "Teresa Carlson's winding path". Washington Business Journal. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d Wilkers, Ross (28 March 2014). "Executive Profile: Teresa Carlson, Amazon Web Services VP of the World Wide Public Sector | ExecutiveBiz". ExecutiveBiz. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  5. ^ a b "DorobekINSIDER: Microsoft Federal's Carlson to join Amazon". Federal News Network. 1 December 2010. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  6. ^ Sharma, Mukesh (21 October 2020). "Geospatial Business Leader of the Year: Teresa Carlson". Geospatial World. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  7. ^ a b c Furrier, John (5 June 2018). "AWS' Tech Renaissance Woman Teresa Carlson Battles Tech Old Guard Propaganda to Modernize Nations". Forbes. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  8. ^ Trifiletti, Catherine (16 November 2020). "20 Questions with Teresa Carlson – Washington Life Magazine". Washington Life. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  9. ^ Anderson, Kylie (16 January 2019). "It's worth the renovation for cloud: Teresa Carlson stacks her wins in public sector overhauls". SiliconANGLE. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  10. ^ a b Cordell, Carten (4 February 2021). "What will Andy Jassy's Amazon rise mean for AWS growth in the D.C. region?". Washington Business Journal. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  11. ^ Cordell, Carten (5 June 2019). "AWS will debut new cloud degree programs". Washington Business Journal. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  12. ^ Mendoza, N.F. (20 December 2020). "Amazon to offer free cloud-computing skills training". TechRepublic. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  13. ^ a b Mitchell, Billy (5 April 2021). "AWS Leader Teresa Carlson leaving Amazon for Splunk". FedScoop. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  14. ^ Ahuja, Maneet; Jennings, Katie (13 April 2020). "Exclusive: Amazon Is Powering The Coronavirus Diagnostics Of The Future". Forbes. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  15. ^ Rivers, Brenda Marie (8 September 2020). "Report: Teresa Carlson, Greg Pearson Assume New Sales Leadership Duties at AWS - GovCon Wire". GovCon Wire. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  16. ^ Mari, Angelica (21 December 2020). "Interview: AWS's Teresa Carlson talks about new role and cloud adoption during Covid-19". ComputerWeekly.com. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  17. ^ Goodison, Donna (30 June 2020). "AWS Creating New Aerospace And Satellite Solutions Unit". CRN. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  18. ^ Tilley, Aaron; Pasztor, Andy (1 July 2020). "Amazon Launches Space Push to Drive Cloud-Computing Growth". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  19. ^ O’Brien, Debbie (2024-03-13). "PagerDuty Appoints Teresa Carlson to Board of Directors".
  20. ^ Team, Commure (2021-12-16). "Commure Adds Three Executives and a New Director, Capping a Year of Dramatic Growth". www.commure.com. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  21. ^ "Board of Directors". International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  22. ^ Riley, Duncan (5 April 2021). "Top AWS executive Teresa Carlson joins Splunk as president and chief growth officer". SiliconANGLE. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  23. ^ Joseph, Damian (25 March 2010). "The Most Influential Women in Technology 2010 – Teresa Carlson". Fast Company. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  24. ^ Milk, Leslie (3 October 2011). "Washington's 100 Most Powerful Women | Washingtonian (DC)". Washingtonian. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  25. ^ Guinto, Joseph (3 October 2019). "Tech Titans 2019: Washington's Top Tech Leaders". Washingtonian. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  26. ^ "Federal 100: Teresa H. Carlson". FCW. 20 March 2013. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  27. ^ Konkel, Frank (21 March 2013). "Teresa Carlson: Changing the game for cloud services -". FCW. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  28. ^ Bort, Julie (8 April 2014). "The 39 Most Important People In Cloud Computing". Business Insider. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  29. ^ "Congressional Record, Volume 162 Issue 171". Congressional Record Online. Government Publishing Office. 30 November 2016. Retrieved 25 March 2021.