Curios to know more about consumer data and data privacy? This month, we interviewed Julie Carrier, Sales Manager in the Specialist Team Unit (STU) at Microsoft. She talked to us about her everyday work at Microsoft, leadership, and data protection and privacy.

You are currently working as Solutions Sales Manager at Microsoft. What does your role involve and what do you like most about it?

As part of the Specialist Team Unit (STU), we focus, together with our partners, on helping large enterprises and public sector organizations envision and implement new transformational projects built on cloud solutions.

My role consists in managing a team of specialists. They sell modern workplace solutions to our customers, ensuring their success in building a highly secured and mobile environment for teamwork.

My past experience in sales helps me a lot in all business aspects of my role. What I like the most about my job is working with people. I have the chance to be part of a team that is passionate about their customers and technology. They learn fast and they are very customer oriented. My main objective is to make them confident.

We focus on helping large enterprises and
public sector organizations envision and implement
new transformational projects built on cloud solutions.

Your educational background is in business administration. How did you get into the IT sector?

When I started studying, I decided to choose business administration to get a 360° perspective of the business world. However, I was also passionate about technology, especially about Microsoft. In fact, I remember applying for a job at Microsoft and being rejected. I then decided to apply for a second time, back in 2000, and this is when I finally got the role I wanted.

You have been working for Microsoft for about 18 years now. How does it feel to work in one organization for so long and what made you stay? What is the best part about working for Microsoft?

Over these past years, I had the chance to experience multiple jobs in marketing and sales, working with partners and customers in various areas such as finance, manufacturing, and even the public sector. Each time, I was 100% committed and eager to learn: for example, when I worked with the French Ministry of Defence, I enrolled in a training course at Institut des Hautes Etudes de Défense Nationale (IHEDN) to better understand the defense sector.

You are certified Data Protection Officer (DPO). This role is relatively new. In fact, the International Association of Privacy Professionals estimated that GDPR created 75,000 new DPO vacancies globally. What skills and knowledge are required for this role?

In times of digital transformation, it is crucial to ensure that personal data is protected and highly secured. This means that companies are responsible for protecting their customers’ data and this is why they need a DPO. This job position requires you to be able to manage a strong global process over an entity and coordinate multiple stakeholders (CEO, CSO, marketing …).

In times of digital transformation,
it is crucial to ensure that
personal data is protected and highly secured.

 

How can we achieve a good balance between extracting the maximum value from consumer data and respecting privacy? What will the future of data protection compliance hold, according to you?

Today, in the digital age, some companies such as the GAFAs (shorthand term for some of the most powerful companies in the world—Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon), collect billions of data and know everything about our lives. They are sometimes more powerful than individual governments and countries. To ensure privacy and confidentiality, it is important to strengthen supranational institutions and regulators, such as the European Union. Only they can remain independent from GAFA.

To ensure privacy and confidentiality,
it is important to strengthen supranational institutions and regulators,
such as the European Union.
Only they can remain independent from GAFA.

At WIL, we have the tradition of concluding the interview with a question from Proust’s questionnaire. We have picked the following question for you: With which historical figure do you most identify with?

I would not say I identify with her, but one of the historical figures I admire the most is Simone Veil: she always had the courage to fight for the causes she considered crucial, even if sometimes her ideas were disturbing the public opinion. She understood the importance of supra national institutions such as the European Union and dedicated her life to important causes.