Cindy Bates

Cindy Bates is Vice President of Microsoft's U.S. Partner Strategy, Marketing and Programs Group where she focuses on enabling and supporting Microsoft's expanding partner ecosystem. Prior to her current role, Cindy was general manager of Microsoft's U.S. Small Business Group, leading teams responsible for marketing, Web and customer relationship management, business development, and small business partner connections. Previously, Cindy was a managing director in Microsoft's Corporate Development and Strategy group where she strategically evaluated, structured, valued and negotiated the company's mergers, acquisitions, investments and joint ventures. Cindy focused on the SMB applications market where she led the acquisition of Navision for Microsoft Business Solutions. She also supported the U.S. Sales and Services organization with a focus on partner strategy. Cindy has Bachelor's degrees in International Economics and Molecular Biology from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Harvard University. She can be reached at partnerQ@microsoft.com.