American businesswoman Amy Hood is responsible for leading Microsoft Corporation’s worldwide finance organization. And as its Chief Financial Officer, she is without doubt among the most influential women in business, landing the 28th spot in the Forbes 2020 list of Power Women.
With a bachelor’s degree in economics from Duke University and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University under her belt, she started out in various investment banking and capital markets roles at Goldman Sachs before joining Microsoft in 2002. While she planned to stay only a few years before moving to a startup, she eventually fell in love with the company and appeared as one of its most passionate supporters.
Over the years, she has held positions in the investor relations group, served as chief of staff in the Server and Tools Business, and ran the strategy and business development team in the business division. In 2013, she became CFO of the company, and the first female to take on that role. By joining three other women on Microsoft’s senior management team, she continued the trend of high-profile women taking senior executive positions in big tech companies in a growing context of political pressure.
But, in addition to being named to her position during one of the more challenging periods in Microsoft’s history, she later explained she hadn’t felt ready for the job. Indeed, despite her degrees and background, she often questioned her confidence. She once said in that respect, "Every job I took, I was deeply uncomfortable in terms of feeling unqualified. Every step, every risk I took, built confidence."
And 2020’s figures confirm her successful move: since her appointment, Microsoft stock has risen over 300%. Throughout her career, she can be credited with much of Microsoft’s boom and its race to become the largest publicly traded company by stock market value. She is deeply involved in the company’s operation and strategy development and has helped instigate around 60 deals including the 2018 $7.5 billion acquisition of software development platform GitHub. Her impressive tenure with the company has undoubtedly helped pivot it into a cloud-computing giant and subscription software leader.