Maria Alvarez – VP of the Experimentation Platform, AI Platform Group. Microsoft

Maria leads a team that provides experimentation authoring, assignment, and related analysis tools to all Microsoft teams to make data-driven product and feature decisions via controlled experiments. She is a technical leader with 20+ years of experience and a sought-after speaker and panelist on the topic of Diversity and Inclusion in AI. Maria is passionate about recruiting diverse talent across all dimensions and representation to ensure AI systems are not biased. She received the Microsoft Global Inclusive Award in 2016, the 2019 Cal Poly College of Science distinguished Alumni Award and the 2020 top 100 Hispanic Information Technology Executive Council 100 award. In addition to creating a diverse and representative culture in Microsoft’s AI Platform Group, Maria serves in two non-profits boards: 1) STEAM:CODERS, a non-profit organization that teaches underserved and underrepresented students the fundamentals of STEAM education and 2) Code the Spectrum, a non-profit organization that provides computer technology training to individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other neurodevelopmental disorders, and to connect them to the high-tech world.