Nazareth College Alumna Gail Evans to Speak at Nazareth's Commencement, May 10

ROCHESTER, NY (04/14/2015)(readMedia)-- Nazareth College will celebrate its 88th annual Commencement at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester on Sunday, May 10, with an address from Gail Evans of Microsoft. Evans, a Nazareth alumna, will deliver the address to the Class of 2015 in a joint ceremony with both undergraduate and graduate students receiving their degrees. The ceremony begins at 9:45 a.m. For more information, please contact Julie Long, Nazareth's chief public relations officer at (585) 389-2456.

Evans' story of climbing the corporate ladder to lead a division of Microsoft began 28 years ago. She worked as a custodian on the graveyard shift at Kodak so she could attend classes during the day at Nazareth College, earning her bachelor's degree in computer science in 1987. She then completed her MBA at the University of Rochester's Simon School of Executive Development.

Her current position at Microsoft is Partner Group Program Manager, Customer Knowledge Platform, Universal Store. She manages a team that analyzes data to find out the usage patterns of particular segments of users. "In other words, we find out what customers really want when they use our products, so we can innovate and meet their needs," said Evans. In this role, she leads numerous technical and business program managers who extend the service across Microsoft.

At the start of her career, Evans worked at Eastman Kodak Company where she was actively involved with the digital transformation and web first strategies with the company. Evans then led the global consumer and small business banking e commerce application development team at Bank of America. Prior to working at Microsoft, Evans led the HP.com team of over 400 technical members to deliver the most ambitious website redesign project in the history of HP. In this role, she was responsible for managing a global team of more than 300 associates to deploy innovative customer experiences to grow online services, mobile sales and provide more efficient agile development processes.

Of her professional achievements, Evans is most proud of receiving the 2011 Egretha Hamilton Award for African American women who believe in hard work, community service and education. She is also proud of her involvement with NPower, which included providing information technology solutions for nonprofit organizations in Charlotte, N.C. Other achievements include a nomination for the Athena Award, serving on panel sessions and being the cover story for EVE Magazine "Voice of Western New York Women."