* Photograph by Shane Van Boxtel / Image Studios
Microsoft
Although it can sometimes be frustrating to feel like you’re a few steps ahead, Michelle Schuler wouldn’t have it any other way. And it’s Northeast Wisconsin that has benefitted from her leading the way.
Founding the organization Women in Technology Wisconsin in 2014 is probably Schuler’s proudest accomplishment, she says, because it opened up an endless series of doors, including the opportunity in 2017 to work for Microsoft President and Appleton native Brad Smith developing the company’s innovative TechSpark initiative. TechSpark has facilitated enormous economic growth in Wisconsin, including a transformational $3.3 billion statewide infrastructure investment.
Schuler today is working to scale TechSpark across the U.S. and building the Microsoft TechSpark Fellows program that has catalyzed more than $228 million in funding and upskilled more than 20,000 people. Nationwide, but especially in the state where her family has lived since 1844, she has continuously championed digital equity, broadband access, AI, digital literacy, technology education, nonprofit technology and innovation.
“I’ve been to Atlanta; I’ve been to Chicago and Washington State,” Schuler says. “I hope we stay Midwest Nice. I hope we grow our own talent and keep our roots here, because we’ve always had that entrepreneurial spirit.”
While she didn’t start her career specializing in technology, Schuler has become one of its staunchest advocates, saying the key to inspiring change and economic development is almost always to adopt a “technology first approach.”
“I had always helped companies develop their vision and it [always] came back to technology,” says Schuler, who majored in finance at UW‑Whitewater and started her career in business development. “How do you leverage technology for an individual person, an organization and then a community? It fits very much with my vision to empower everyone to be their best selves.”
As she reflects on her career, Schuler says she has succeeded not just because of her willingness to embrace technology, but also because of her willingness to “throw darts.” She says her father, a farmer and entrepreneur, is perhaps her greatest influence; he always told her to “just go for it.”
“I’m not the type of person who just follows one path and hopes that works,” she says. “Sometimes you need to throw some darts to see what’s the appetite of the community, the region, the state, the nation. Then you need to be willing to adjust.”
Because Schuler was willing to throw the dart that was Women in Technology, said nominator Barb LaMue, Wisconsin has become a model for government, business and nonprofit organizations working together to drive systemic change. This is reflected in projects including the Microsoft Co-Innovation Lab, TitletownTech, gener8tor, JobPods and more. Schuler has helped set the tone for innovation, LaMue said, and takes a hands-on approach to moving initiatives forward: “Michelle is an innovator, collaborator and trusted advisor.”
Schuler, who says she actually does find time to sleep and sleeps well, has provided service to nonprofits such as Riverview Gardens, African Heritage Inc., the NEW Manufacturing Alliance and United Way. Her efforts have empowered 525 nonprofit employees at 30 organizations with new digital skills.
Although she was initially afraid of getting lost in a big corporation like Microsoft, Schuler says she has no regrets after seeing the impact she’s been able to make. When you’re ahead of what’s coming, she says, that’s when ecosystems of change get created.
“I think I’m always looking for the next thing.”
