Executive Biographies

As our Global Partner Solutions Director for ANZ, Vanessa Sorenson leads a strategy which focuses on investing for growth in Microsoft’s world class partner ecosystem; driving the innovation they make across our cloud platforms to deliver digital transformation for our customers. With over 10,000 partners across Australia and New Zealand, Vanessa and her team engage to build capabilities across technical skills, commercial and go-to-market, and customer sales engagements.

Alongside her GPS role, Vanessa also provides local NZ leadership as our New Zealand Country Leader. A passionate advocate for Aotearoa, Vanessa is responsible for ensuring Microsoft NZ empowers all its customers and partners to achieve more.

Vanessa joined Microsoft in October 2017, after more than two decades at Spark, New Zealand’s largest telco. In her first role at Microsoft as Director of Enterprise, Sorenson was tasked with driving business growth, forging strong relationships, managing Microsoft’s large Enterprise sales team and working closely with partners and key stakeholders in New Zealand. Even with decades of tech experience, Vanessa doesn’t consider herself a ‘classic techie’ – rather she is driven by what technology can do for all New Zealanders. She is a noted champion of diversity and inclusion across the ICT industry, encouraging change, fostering diversity and inclusion, driven by the belief that D&I is not optional but essential.

Having carved out an extraordinary career that has included both wins and losses, Sorenson has committed herself to a lifetime of actively mentoring other businesswomen to become the best they can be.

Outside of work, Vanessa is passionate about education, championing equal access to technology for all children and encouraging girls to embrace STEM. She is married to Chris and together they have two children, Grace and Jack.