MBA grad honored with Microsoft’s highest award

Roxie Mitchell Hill, MBA and MS in Computer and Information Science (‘06), climbed the ladder at Microsoft.

With eight promotions under her belt, she is now the Director, Global ISV Partnerships and was awarded the Microsoft Founder’s Award in July. The annual award, Microsoft’s highest honor, recognizes the top 25 of their nearly 150,000+ employees. Recipients receive a Rolex watch with Bill Gates and the awardees' initials.

Hill was recognized for her work managing Microsoft’s executive, industry, and sales global partnerships. She helped her partners digitally transform their organizations and grow their cloud business over 300 percent year-over-year, which translated to significant revenue for both her partners and for Microsoft.

“By leveraging the power of the cloud, these partners are able to increase customer experience, demand, and retention, which directly impacts revenue growth and enables them to compete more effectively,” Hill said.

And Microsoft isn’t the only organization recognizing Hill’s impact. She was also named one of the 100 Under 50 Executive Leaders by Diversity MBA Magazine in August. As an awardee, she is honored alongside executives at global operations including Amazon, Cigna, and L’Oréal.

She credits her Johns Hopkins degree as the launchpad for her success.

“My Johns Hopkins MBA prepared me to take my career to the next level. I had been successful at Microsoft, but my earlier roles were more tactical. The degree enabled me to evaluate Microsoft’s business in a more strategic way. By viewing the business holistically, beyond my specific division, I was able to more effectively support our solutions, customers, and partners, which drove a greater organizational impact,” Hill said.

Community impact

The Founder’s Award also recognized Hill for her extensive work with local volunteer and advocacy organizations. She is the vice president of ways and means of her children’s school’s PTA and serves on the NAACP Parent-Leadership Council. She also volunteers for DigiGirlz, Microsoft’s initiative introducing middle school and high school girls to careers in STEM, and organizations like Black Girls Can, a non-profit empowering black girls and women to become entrepreneurs in STEAM fields.

“I am passionate about using my education, experience, and role to give back to my community and help the next generation of women and underrepresented minorities realize their potential particularly in critical STEM areas,” Hill said.

Hill knows first-hand how a high-impact career in technology can feel out of reach for some children. She was one of the first people in her family to graduate from college and then again one of the first to earn a graduate degree.  She says she felt in over her head when starting at Microsoft as an intern at the age of 19 and recalls walking into a meeting with a CIO and realizing his office was larger than her apartment.

Hill attributes a large part of her success to the teachers, mentors, and allies who helped her navigate the new experiences, opportunities, and challenges after starting her career at Microsoft.  Her volunteer work now helps high school and college students at similar inflection points in their journey. Hill continues to pay it forward with her work with local K-12 and college students. She has shared her story and spoken to over 500 students in the D.C. metro area.

Pursuing a career in STEM

While not all of her volunteer work is directly STEM related, she encourages everyone to consider a career in STEM.

“Whatever your passion is, it intersects with technology,” Hill said.

She points to examples like the dancers who helped make the video game Just Dance come to life and writers who transform technical information into digestible consumer books.

“Being in tech doesn’t mean that you have to be a coder,” Hill said. “Tech organizations like Microsoft employ marketing resources, communication directors, relationship strategists, and of course programmers, program managers, and customer success resources. It’s a melting pot of fantastic people who enjoy problem solving and driving our mission to empower every person and organization to achieve more.”