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Weinert WAVE Advisory Board

Kristen Forecki

Kristen Forecki

Senior Director, Experiences & Devices Strategy

Microsoft

Kristen Forecki is an experienced leader of both unicorn startups and Fortune 500 companies.

As a startup executive, Kristen was instrumental to the growth of unicorn marketplaces Convoy and Rover. Convoy, last valued at $2.75B in 2019, is a digital freight network that increases efficiency in the $800B trucking industry while earning more for trucking companies, saving money for customers, and eliminating carbon waste for our planet. As the first executive outside of the founders, Kristen led a diverse set of teams through six years of Convoy’s rapid growth, including operations, legal, PR, marketing, HR, and finance. She was also responsible for Convoy’s industry leading Quality & Compliance team, which transformed Convoy’s network into one of the safest in the country, boasting 1/20th the average claims rate and 15% better predictive crash ratings than the industry average. She was the founding executive of the Women at Convoy Employee Resource Group and was named a Top Woman to Watch by Women in Trucking. Rover, valued at approximately $2B in 2021, is an international pet-sitting marketplace that makes it possible for everyone to experience the love of a pet. As an early leader at Rover, Kristen led customer experience and operations teams before taking over the company’s supply-side operations. Kristen is also an active startup advisor, speaker, and angel investor.

Kristen’s career in Fortune 500 companies spans product management, strategy, and finance with industry leaders Amazon, Microsoft, The Boston Consulting Group, and General Mills. She began her career in supply chain and trade finance with General Mills, managing the costs to make and sell the cereals that we all know and love (Cheerios, Lucky Charms, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch are still favorites!). With The Boston Consulting Group, she focused on nonprofit strategy, including funding allocations, marketing, and overall strategic planning. At Amazon, Kristen was an early product manager on what is now Amazon Business, led Amazon’s marketplace for Office and PCs, and transformed Amazon’s vendor negotiation program with the rollout of levels of service. Today, she is focused on strategy and the next big bets for Microsoft.

Although she remains a proud Wisconsin native, Kristen now lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she is actively engaged in the region’s thriving technology scene and serves as Vice Chair of the Board for the Washington Technology Industry Association. She was named to the Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 under 40 and featured as a Daring Woman in Seattle Business Magazine.

Kristen earned an MBA degree from Harvard Business School and a BBA degree with a double major in finance, investment and banking and marketing from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.