Peggy Johnson is the executive vice president of Business Development at Microsoft where she is responsible for driving strategic partnerships and transactions to accelerate growth for Microsoft and its customers. As part of her role, Peggy works with external partners around the world, ranging from start-ups to large-scale enterprises, to identify areas of collaboration, drive innovation and unlock shared value. In this capacity, she also manages Microsoft’s relationship with the venture capital community and oversees strategic investments through the company’s corporate venture fund, Microsoft Ventures. Many have referred to Peggy as Microsoft’s “chief deal maker.”

Prior to Microsoft, Peggy spent 24 years at Qualcomm, where she served as executive vice president of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., president of Global Market Development, and served on the company’s executive committee. She holds a B.A. from San Diego State University in electrical engineering, a field she entered after a chance conversation with some of the department’s executive assistants that inspired her to change her major to a STEM field.

A second-generation Irish American, Peggy attributes her work ethic to her Irish grandparents, who emigrated from Longford and Sligo. “Both (separately) moved to a new country, with nothing in their pockets but addresses of friends,” she says, also noting that “apparently my grandfather left from Cork to America without saying goodbye to his mother! The family in Longford is still not happy about that.”

Peggy lives in the Seattle area with her husband, the youngest of their three children, four dogs, and one cat.