Speaker Bio
As president for Strategic Missions and Technologies at Microsoft, Jason Zander leads a global team of engineering and field organizations building the future of cloud computing across quantum computing, telecommunications, space, and mission engineering.
Since joining Microsoft from IBM in 1992 as a software developer, Zander advanced on a track of engineering leadership roles with growing business responsibilities. He was one of the original members of the .NET Common Language Runtime team in 1996. By 2010, Zander advanced to become corporate vice president of the Visual Studio team, where he led the product in its growth to over a billion dollars in annual revenue and incubated several efforts, including projects that would evolve into Visual Studio Code.
Due to the growing importance of the cloud for Microsoft’s future growth, Satya Nadella named Zander to lead Azure development in 2012. In 2014, after Nadella became CEO, Zander’s responsibilities expanded to encompass the entire Azure business, which led to his promotion in 2018 to executive vice president and his addition to Microsoft’s Senior Leadership Team. In 2021, he formed the Strategic Missions and Technologies division reporting directly to the CEO to incubate next-generation infrastructure technology.
Zander is also the Chief Technology Advisor of TitletownTech in Green Bay, Wisconsin, which is a joint venture between the Green Bay Packers and Microsoft, to support and invest in early-stage, high-growth businesses in the region. He was also previously a board member of atheneahealth, which provides network-enabled services and mobile apps for healthcare systems and medical groups.
Zander holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Minnesota State University and lives in the Seattle area with his family.