Kathleen D. Hall, Microsoft

Corporate Vice President, Global Advertising and Media

Kathleen Hall has had an amazing year.

A 30-year veteran of marketing, Kathleen Hall is now responsible for Microsoft’s global advertising and media across its various consumer and commercial brands with a combined budget of roughly $2 billion.

She was promoted to the new role of General Manager of Global Advertising at the end of 2014 following the recent consolidation of the company’s agency partnership.  She was a critical decision-maker in the global agency review which resulted in the creation of IPG’s M:United, a consolidated unit across McCann Erickson, The Martin Agency and Erwin Penland for creative.  Carat won the media role.

Ms. Hall often talks about how she spent half of her career in media and half in creative, so her new role now brings them together at a time when says “you can’t separate the medium and the message in digital.” She joined Microsoft in 2006 and reports to CMO Chris Capossela.

Kathleen Hall began her career with Young and Rubicam New York and worked on the advertising agency side of the business for the first half of her career, driving marketing strategy and execution for accounts such as Keds, American Brands, Titleist, Reebok, TJX Corporation, and Bank Boston. She earned a reputation within the industry for developing key consumer insights and marketing solutions that drive business results. She was also a partner and chief operating officer at Leonard/Monahan, an award-winning agency.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Kathleen Hall was Senior Vice President of Advertising and Brand at Fidelity Investments, the nation’s largest retirement company.  During her four years at Fidelity, she led brand vision development, overhauled Fidelity.com, developed Fidelity’s most successful online planning tool “myplan,” and launched a new advertising platform with new corporate tagline. Results included an increase in target market share from under 9% to over 12% in less than two years.