Keynote address

Speaker: Cindy Bloom.

Title: Math = A Formula for Success at Microsoft

Abstract: Microsoft is one of the world’s largest software development companies best known for products such as Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and Xbox.  With more than 125,000 employees worldwide there are thousands of different types of job opportunities available within the company.  Each and every role at Microsoft requires a logical thinker and a smart decision maker which are key skills developed through the study of mathematics.  Whether writing computer code for the next popular Xbox game, leading a project team deploying a new process to our employees, or supporting a customer whose network is down, there are critical math skills needed every day in order to be successful.  It is important to be able to identify problems easily, to ask the right questions to understand the issues, and to be able to analyze all the information quickly in order to decide how to best fix any problem.  In our session we will look at some common business issues at Microsoft and see how math enables us to solve those problems effectively.Microsoft 

Biography: Cindy Bloom is a Support Escalation Manager at Microsoft.  She manages a group of engineers who provide technical support to enterprise companies using Microsoft Windows networking technologies.  She joined Microsoft as part of the acquisition of Great Plains back in 2001 and prior to that had been with Great Plains Software since 1992.  During her career she has been involved in a variety of roles including Support Engineer, Trainer, Content Developer, and Manager.  She graduated from Moorhead State University in 1991 where she majored in Mathematics and minored in Computer Science.  She currently lives in Fargo, ND with her husband and 3 daughters – Jensen (age 14), Kendal (age 11) and Logan (age 6).