Closing Ceremony

Featured Speaker: Gina Loften, NCSSM '82

Fortune 100 Board Director | C-Level Executive | Advisor | Author | Speaker

Gina Loften is a technology industry veteran and independent board director. Ms. Loften recently retired as the Chief Technology Officer for Microsoft US. She is a thought leader with a track record for successfully putting innovation into practice, reimagining businesses, accelerating profitable results and building diverse high-performing teams. Ms. Loften has demonstrated her expertise in mergers & acquisitions by identifying and integrating software and consulting companies, creating portfolios of new products, services and revenue streams that drive increased market share. Gina has held senior executive positions in Research, Development, Sales, and Consulting Services at IBM and Microsoft as well as Chief Innovation and Chief Technology Officer roles. Her leadership impact has been characterized by leading businesses ranging from emerging to multiple $B enterprises. As an operating executive with a track record scaling enterprise business, Ms. Loften’s counsel and unique perspectives on driving growth are highly valued. Her insight, foresight and governance experience are valued on public and non-profit boards. Ms. Loften currently serves as an independent board director for the public companies NASDAQ: TTEC, NASDAQ: TWKS (Thoughtworks) and the private companies Foursquare and Modernizing Medicine. In the not-for-profit space, Ms. Loften serves on the Board of Trustees of Fortune 100 Financial Services company TIAA (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America). She also serves on the boards of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Foundation, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Engineering School and Foundation and DeCODE, the largest technology, innovation and entrepreneurship community jointly hosted with UC Berkeley and Stanford. Ms. Loften is a sought-after speaker on diversity, equity and inclusion, digital transformation, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, innovation, and leadership. She has also been published addressing topics of how AI can help mental health among veterans, the true value of data for government and how open source can bring agencies to the cloud. Ms. Loften was recently featured in Business Insider as one of the “9 Powerful Leaders of Color to consider for Board Seats in 2022” and Diversity Woman Magazine as one of "The Elite 100 in Corporate America”. Her work and leadership have also been recognized in Diversity Inclusion Conference Top 100 CTOs, US Black Engineer, ExecutiveGov and NC Business magazine – The Changing face of Executive Talent in NC.

Ms. Loften is a graduate of the renowned North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Electrical Engineering.