Jennifer Ferrara

About Jennifer Ferrara

As Avanade\'s Enterprise Strategy and Change Lead, I operate at the forefront of the global technology market; capturing, exploring and developing new initiatives to create strategy which benefits our clients, provides competitive advantage and helps Avanade and its people to grow. Transformative, driven and visionary, my career reflects the pursuit of major challenges, recognising and articulating what needs to be done and putting the strategy in place to get us there. Operating at a senior executive level within a leading global organization, people and relationships are central to the impact of my work. Heading up a dedicated team of senior strategic leaders, I work in close collaboration with internal heads across the business and our external stakeholders and partners. These strong relationships have enabled us to drive substantial, transformative change across Avanade and expand our global reputation for innovation. With Avanade since 2012, highlights so far include: • Leading the enterprise-wide strategy, change and program execution for our Global Product, & Innovation Organization • Setting up and launching the advisory practice as Global Operations Lead • Introducing Design Thinking into the business • Expanding our market penetration through acquisitions Developing potential in others is important to me, I have been an active mentor and coach to colleagues and am involved in the Global Solution Area and University of WA mentoring programs. My previous career experiences include CEO and CFO Assistant for Callison (1 yr), Academic Manager with Kaplan (3 yrs), Marketing Consultant with Strictly Accounting (2 yrs) and Assistant Manager of Sports Clubs (2 yrs). These roles developed skills in business strategy, sales strategy, marketing and finance early on in my career which I consolidated through achieving an MBA in Marketing and Strategy in 2011. Outside of work, I am a proud mom to 3 children and enjoy the outdoors, camping and watersports. I am curious about people and different cultures (which is why I chose an earlier degree in anthropology!) and, when possible, I love global travel. I have a healthy, positive approach to life and one of my hidden skills is being a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. Areas of expertise include: Leading global strategy teams • strategic planning • change management • design thinking • project management • market analysis • acquisitions

Experience

1. Global Business Lead - Center for Ai

   Avanade

   Sep 2023 — Present

Education

• University of Washington, Michael G. Foster School of Business

  Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Marketing and Strategy, 3.64

  2009 — 2011

• University of Southern California

  Bachelor of Arts, Film, Visual Anthropology, 3.66

  2001 — 2005