Margaret Dawson (she/her)

Margaret Dawson is a 30-year technology industry veteran who today is Founder and CEO of Snort Out Loud LLC and CDH Restaurants. As a marketing consultant, she delivers messaging platforms and go-to-market programs for executives, products, and companies that drive internal alignment and break through crowded markets to achieve category share and revenue growth.

Margaret is a proven entrepreneur and intrapreneur, having led successful programs and teams at several start-ups, such as Hubspan and Aventail, and Fortune 500 companies, including Amazon.com, Microsoft, HP and Red Hat. During her many startup gigs, Margaret’s transparent leadership style and integrated marketing plans built bigger than reality brands that resulted in several successful acquisitions. In leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies, she used her intrapreneurship and collaborative leadership to drive new global initiatives, including cloud at HP, security at Microsoft, international e-commerce at Amazon.com, and portfolio go-to-market strategy at Red Hat. Her greatest education and growth professionally and personally, however, came from the multiple failures and stalled ventures she experienced.

Called “Witty, inspirational and engaging,” Margaret is an acclaimed author and speaker on digital transformation, emerging technologies, leadership, and living intentionally. Ranked as one of the top Women in Cloud Computing, she was also named Business Role Model of the Year for Women in IT, and Mentor and Coach of the Year in the Stevie Business Awards. She has a passion for mentoring women and men in tech, and is unapologetic in her drive for increased equality and diversity, as well as her unique talents of snorting while laughing and swearing like a sailor.