In this of Beyond the Blue Badge, host Rich Kaplan visits Tricia Raikes on the shores of Seattle’s Lake Union at the headquarters for North Forty and The Raikes Foundation. Tricia shares why she and her husband Jeff Raikes in 2002 started the foundation, which has given more than $97 million in grants; how the organization’s mission has evolved; and how everyone — at any level — can think about impact-driven philanthropy.

In Episode 9 of Beyond the Blue Badge’s second season, host Lora Poepping talks with Microsoft alumnus Gene Boes inclusion and equity and his role as president and CEO of Northwest Center. Gene shares how his personal experiences — from flying jets off aircraft carriers to his years at Microsoft to raising an autistic daughter — led to running a nonprofit focused on the advancement of equal opportunities for children and adults with disabilities. Plus, learn how to become more inclusive as an employer.

In this episode, we talk with five individuals who took to heart the ethos of giving that is infused into Microsoft’s culture and they incorporated that everyday into their lives Beyond the Blue Badge. Claire Bonilla is CEO of global health organization SightLife. Krishnan Iyre leads Humanize Homelessness. Bill Weis started Limited Mobility Solutions. Todd Strong promotes social justice through music at Give a Beat. And Chad Lacy started Hero Flights to make sure post-9/11 combat veterans were able to get the medical treatment they needed. These alums all realize the incredible power of the Alumni Network. They harness the skills and lessons they learned at Microsoft and consciously implement them in their respective organizations today. And, they were all named Microsoft Alumni Network’s 2019 AlumniHERO grant winners.

In Episode 7 of Beyond the Blue Badge’s second season, host Lora Poepping talks with Microsoft alumna Nancy McSharry Jensen about overcoming the challenges of returning to the workforce. Like many Microsoft alums who see a challenge, they find a way to solve it. Nancy and her co-founder of The Swing Shift did just that and now they help other individuals successfully change career paths or return to the workforce after taking a break. 

In Episode 6 of Beyond the Blue Badge’s second season, host Paul Shoemaker talks with Microsoft alumnus Tony Mestres about the “moment of truth” that society is facing regarding social inequities, the changes that need to happen and the urgency: “We’ve got a generation tops to turn this around.” Following 22 years in the tech industry — 15 of those with Microsoft — his ah-ha moment during a mid-year review started him on the path to become president and CEO of the Seattle Foundation, where he strives to find new solutions to big social problems.

Kathy Alexion is vice president of IT and the chief information officer of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She was a senior program manager at Microsoft from 2010 to 2012. Today, she’s wielding technology to help world-class scientists at Fred Hutch use data and machine learning as they search for the cure for cancer and other diseases. In this episode of Beyond the Blue Badge host Rich Kaplan talks with Kathy about the power of partnerships, the difference data can make and amazing advances in tech as a tool for researchers.

https://microsoftalumni.com/beyondthebluebadge

In Season 2, Episode 4 of Beyond the Blue Badge, podcast host Becky Monk caught up with Steve VanRoekel at his Portland, Oregon home. Steve spent 15 years at Microsoft — several of those years working directly for Bill Gates — before leaving to work in the public sector. There he helped overhaul the FCC, was named one of the nation’s most influential people in cloud computing, served as chief information officer of the United States under President Barack Obama, and used big data to help solve the Ebola Crisis. Today, he’s the chief operating officer of one of the nation’s oldest and largest private foundations, the Rockefeller Foundation.

 https://microsoftalumni.com/beyondthebluebadge

Steve Banfield recently did what so many busy professionals wish they could do — take a sabbatical before starting the next chapter of their career. In this episode of the Beyond the Blue Badge podcast, host Lora Poepping sits down with the former CEO of BMW’s former car sharing service Reach Now to talk about his career, the value of unplugging to recharge, and walking the Camino de Santiago.

https://microsoftalumni.com/beyondthebluebadge

Microsoft former president and chief operating officer Jon Shirley talks with host Paul Shoemaker about what it was like when Microsoft was a still a startup and how he helped shape the fast-growing tech company — and the Seattle region — into what it is today. They also delve into how Jon did what many alumni do post-Microsoft; he followed his passion. Learn how a walk in his own garden inspired the Olympic Sculpture Park and so much more. 

https://microsoftalumni.com/beyondthebluebadge

Chaitra Vedullapalli is co-founder and CMO of Meylah and co-founder and president of Women in Cloud. Beyond the Blue Badge host Rich Kaplan kicks of Season 2 of our podcast talking with Chaitra about her journey in the tech industry, empowering female entrepreneurs in the tech and living a purpose-driven life that fuels economic development.

https://microsoftalumni.com/beyondthebluebadge