OL Reign Legend: Lorraine Bardeen – Corporate Vice President and CTO, Worldwide Industry Solutions

The Legends Campaign, a partnership between OL Reign and Starbucks, honors women for their extraordinary contributions to our community in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Prior to OL Reign’s match against the Kansas City Current on June 10, OL Reign recognized Lorraine Bardeen, Corporate Vice President and CTO, Worldwide Industry Solutions.

Serving as a Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, Bardeen is the Chief Technology Officer for the Worldwide Industry Solutions Group, where her team provides solution design expertise, cross-industry thought leadership, and solution technical guidance across technologies such as AI for customers in all industries.

Bardeen is passionate about creating an inclusive environment in which everyone can do their best work. She is part of a CEO-sponsored inclusion council, representing the GLEAM (LGBTQIA+) employee resource group and community and also participates in the Latinx exec community and Women at Microsoft. As a leader, Bardeen inspires and mentors others, helping them to become the leaders they were meant to be.

“I've had the opportunity to introduce Microsoft as a company to two entirely new audiences or types of customers who had not been served by technology before, and I'm really, really proud of that. You know, really expanding that technology, but specifically Microsoft's commitment to people underserved by technology,” said Bardeen.

“I'm also really proud of committing to building products with teams that are not only exceptionally diverse by any standards in the technology industry at all, but really proving that products are better, more lasting and have higher business impact when they are built with exceptionally diverse teams, both diversity of origin and race and sexual orientation and gender and all of that, but also diversity of disciplines.”

Prior to her current role, she worked on everything from Windows apps to Xbox games to the company’s HoloLens mixed-reality platform. In addition, she has worked on the Board of Directors for Collectors Universe and served as the Chair of the Strategic Committee.

“I think my journey to leadership was definitely unexpected and non-traditional in many ways. I grew up in a lower income household and moved around a lot. Through those challenges, what really provided a sense of security, pride and safety was school. It felt like somewhere that I could safely thrive and have some predictable spaces.”

Though Bardeen didn’t necessarily have a plan entering college, her ability to adapt allowed her to find success. As she was beginning her career, she was conflicted between entering the nonprofit space full time or going the corporate route. Fueled by her passion for caring for others, Bardeen elected to take the corporate route.

“I was just thinking about how I could create a bigger platform and found that the corporate route gives me a bigger you know platform in multiple ways, whether that is capital, money or a broader network.” 

When asked about the advice she would give to young women beginning their careers, Bardeen had a lot to share.

“People might say that attributes that be successful or certain education or a certain specific set of technical skills, but I really found that the attributes that matter are your adaptability, your openness, your pursuit of excellence and be able to bring as many people along with you as possible. The skills it takes to be successful are deep inside you and not something you can get with a degree.”

The next bit of advice is not something that Bardeen came up with herself, but learned from a movie.

“Sometimes, all you need in life is 20 seconds of courage. For me, the first time I used it for myself was I opened the door and walked into a room of powerful men and all the women were sitting in the back along the edges, and all the men were at the table. I needed to use 20 seconds of courage to get to a chair that places me at the table, and it made a huge difference.”

For her last piece of advice, Bardeen emphasized the importance of taking the time everyday to take care of yourself, regardless of how busy your day can get.

“Find a period of time every day that you spend recentering yourself like every day. For me it's early morning and I am by myself for about an hour and a half every morning. I exercise, drink coffee… all this different stuff. Finding time that you use an intentional way every day and protecting that time, even if it's early in the morning or late at night or whatever give you this consistent sense of self that you can stick with throughout the day.”

To conclude, Bardeen reflected on what it means to her to be honored as an OL Reign Legend.

“First of all, I'm just so proud to be a sports fan in general in Seattle. Seattle is a passionate community of sports fans and I truly love all sports. That said, I feel the most connected to women's sports teams in Seattle. So, being able to be honored by an organization and a community that means so much to me and that I go out of my way to honor is special. I'm grateful and excited to participate in this honor and loved working with the team.”