Christina Pearson, Senior Director of Public Relations, Microsoft
Since starting at Microsoft in 2010, Christina has built a successful public affairs communications program targeted at U.S. political and policy influencers. She has elevated Microsoft’s visibility by driving a number of integrated communications campaigns that include a combination of media relations, social media, marketing, events and stakeholder outreach. This year, Christina managed PR teams nationwide to highlight Microsoft’s public affairs efforts. She has led successful initiatives like spotlighting new technology, developed local blogs on community involvement, formed monthly forums to raise the visibility of emerging policy issues, and leads media support for major company announcements.
Christina led Microsoft’s D.C. TechFair where the company aimed to promote innovation policy in the D.C. area. The 2015 TechFair showcased the latest innovations from Microsoft Research at Microsoft’s Innovation & Policy Center in Washington, D.C., including data visualization, cloud computing and predictive analytics in the fields of education, healthcare, environment and more. Christina led a team in providing strategy, media outreach and stakeholder engagement for the full-day event. The event also included an evening reception for top influencers to engage with Microsoft’s researchers. Christina’s leadership helped drive over 700 in-person attendees, including 9 Members of Congress and onsite attendance from 10 national and hyperlocal media outlets resulting in C-SPAN interviews with Microsoft leaders. Her efforts garnered more than 650 tweets and retweets, which resulted in more than 7.7 million impressions.