As president of US Regulated Industries at Microsoft, Toni Townes-Whitley leads the US sales strategy for driving digital transformation across customers and partners within the public sector and regulated industries. With responsibility for the 4900+ sales organization and ~$14B P&L, she is one of the leading women at Microsoft, and in the technology industry, with a strong track record for accelerating profitable business performance and building high-performance teams.
Her organization is responsible for executing on Microsoft’s industry strategy and go-to-market for both public sector and regulated industries in the United States, including Education, Financial Services, Government, and Health. In addition to leading a sales organization, Townes-Whitley is helping to steer the company’s work to address racial injustice – with efforts targeted both internally at the level of corporate culture, and externally to counter the prevailing societal impacts.
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 more than 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 serves on the boards of the PNC Financial Services Group, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, and the United Way Worldwide. She is an advisor to the Women’s Center of Northern Virginia, and a past president of Women in Technology. She has helped to launch new initiatives at Microsoft with the Athena Alliance, an organization that prepares women for corporate board roles, and Gender Fair, which rates companies on their fairness practices for leadership, employee policies, advertising and philanthropy. Townes-Whitley also is the recipient of numerous awards that include: Women in Technology Leadership, Black Enterprise Top Executive, FedScoop Top50 for Industry Leadership, and NVTC Tech 100 Executive. In 2020, she was awarded the prestigious Federal 100 Industry Eagle Award.
Townes-Whitley continues to support the US Peace Corps, for which she volunteered for three years as a village teacher in Gabon (Central Africa). She earned her bachelor’s degree in Public Policy & Economics from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, and has received certifications from Wharton Executive Education, New York University (NYU), and the Performance Management Institute. She and her husband John H. Whitley reside in Mclean, VA. They have five children, six grandchildren and counting.
