Broadly speaking, Danielle Estrada works in sales. But she doesn’t like to make pitches, and her clients don’t really want them, either.
As U.S. Retail & Consumer Strategic Sales Leader for Microsoft, Estrada works with some of the biggest corporations in the world. And they are looking for a lot more than sales pitches.
“You don’t have to ‘sell’ me. Your brand speaks for itself,” Estrada says they tell her. “We’re going to buy. Have a conversation with me and understand my business.”
And that’s exactly why Estrada, who has worked 28 years in technology (and more than six of them at Microsoft) relishes her job.
“I absolutely love being customer-facing,” Estrada says. “That’s the favorite part for me. I’ve had roles where I was running the services and delivery side more than the people side of engagements. I have a long background in system integration and program management. And the part that I enjoy the most is building relationships and connections with our customers.”
Building Relationships, Expecting Results
Since 2022, Estrada has also been building those kinds of relationships at Georgetown University, where she teaches in the Master’s in Information Technology Management and Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies programs. Now, she is using her technological and people skills to help design the university’s Master of Professional Studies in Artificial Intelligence Management degree, slated to launch in Fall 2025, as well as a new course in artificial intelligence for the bachelor’s degree completion program.
“She’s a rising star at Microsoft, and she’s also helped other women in tech,” says Frederic Lemieux, Ph.D., Faculty Director of the master’s programs in Applied Intelligence, Cybersecurity Risk Management, and Information Technology Management. “She’s helping companies and organizations like Georgetown transition to the new technology. She’s helped them make the right choices. She’s helped them assess their needs. She’s acutely aware of what works in industry when it comes to integrating new technologies like AI.”
With her extensive contacts in the field, Estrada is helping the Artificial Intelligence Management program forge ties with Microsoft and other major industry partners, Lemieux says. A popular advisor, Estrada loves mentoring and coaching both young and mid-level professionals. And she offers her students a good understanding of what to expect at the highest levels of the tech sector as well as specific ways in which their classroom work is transferable to the industry.
But personable and popular does not mean easy.
“She’s looking for rigor,” Lemieux says. “She’s looking for students to be able to go above and beyond.”
And to think outside the ordinary, the accepted, the safe, and well-traveled. When she was beginning work on the Artificial Intelligence programs, Estrada says, there was some skepticism about whether Georgetown should embrace a nascent technology largely known for its negative connotations: reports across the country of students letting AI do their work; concerns that it could kill jobs or get into the wrong hands.
These are all valid concerns, says Estrada, who is married and has a daughter in high school and a son in college; but that does not call for running from AI or pretending that the technology does not exist and is not growing in sophistication by the day. Better to seek to understand it—to run “toward” it, carefully—and learn where it is headed and how society might best respond.
Seeking Challenges, Finding Solutions
It’s that pragmatic, clear-eyed approach that has guided Estrada through her career. As a woman in tech, she represents just 25 percent of the technology workforce. As a Black woman in tech, she represents about 3 percent.
The key to her success and that of her students, she says, can only be found in diligence, curiosity, and hard work.
“When it comes to solving problems, I’m a fixer,” Estrada says. “Understanding where there could be problems, where there could be challenges, and having a solution to every one of those problems is such a rewarding thing to me. Especially when I can bring in other resources and tools that are going to help them.
“And then,” she adds, “you get to share the success stories.”
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