Zena Heywood

About Zena Heywood

My professional passion is strategic planning and collaborating across organizations to conceptualize and implement results-oriented integrated marketing campaigns. I worked at Microsoft for 18 years: a place where talent, knowledge, ambition and intelligence are in abundance, but where strong (and large) personalities can take over, and this is where I believe my value shines through: I am a unifier and consensus builder in the face of singularity and competitiveness. Since leaving Microsoft in 2016 I have been working as a marketing consultant and marketing director for Olive + Goose, Microsoft partner specializing in technical and business projects. If you need help with business or marketing projects, deployment of security or digital workplace solutions, or help with migrations or government (GCC and GCC High) solutions, Olive + Goose is the partner for you. I have proven ability to drive collective success: building business plans and running marketing programs leading in-person and geographically dispersed virtual teams partnering with clients, executives and enabling sales teams reporting and owning the Rhythm of Business (ROB), overseeing multi-million-dollar budgets And while one of my strengths is being able to anticipate trends and see the big picture, I’m equally unafraid to get down to the “granular” level—comfortable with spreadsheets, financial modeling—the fiscal nuts and bolts of business that sometimes go overlooked. At Olive + Goose I have worked on contracts across a number of teams, including- Developing marketing plans and materials for new Microsoft datacenters around the world - Managing and delivering on marketing projects in Microsoft Security / Compliance teams - Running in person and virtual events for Microsoft Compliance team - Running advertising campaign for Microsoft 365 - Developing Azure plans and deliverables targeting small and medium businesses While at Microsoft, my efforts have included- building Microsoft’s credibility in the Big Data space through expanded and more targeted presence at 3rd party events - driving multi-million-dollar sales within multi-billion-dollar businesses - developing actionable plans to expand technical product and service offerings - planning/execution of US Roadshow for SQL Server/ Windows Server/Systems Center (20 events) across US - growing WW SQL business (mid-sized accounts) to ~$1B sales milestone ($971M+)- pioneering of Telesales pilots in SMB sub-segment to garner 15:1 ROI. I welcome contact through LinkedIn. Let’s talk!

Experience

1. Business Consultant

   Derflan, Inc.

   Sep 2023 — Present · Seattle, WA, US

   I am working with Microsoft in the Windows Operations team on the Windows 10 End of Support project. I am managing the plan of record for marketing and engineering, ensuring we are all in alignment with our strategy and using all of the tools available to drive customers to Windows 11 before Windows 10 goes out of support in October 2025.

Education

• Cass Business School

  MBA

  1993 — 1995