Ep. 077: Techquity Unplugged with William A. Adams

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Meet William A. Adams:

William A. Adams is an award-winning D&I innovator, engineering trailblazer, and philanthropist. From an early accomplishment of rolling out critical XML code to many of Microsoft’s core products globally, he was later named the first Technical Advisor to the CTO of Microsoft, Kevin Scott.

William has founded and overseen global initiatives that revolutionize how underserved communities access jobs and build careers at the company. As co-founder of the Microsoft Leap program – named Microsoft’s D&I Program of the Year in 2020 – he helped launch the training of more than 26 cohorts around the world. Today, a high percentage of Microsoft Leap participants obtain jobs within Microsoft or other high-tech companies. His most recent collaboration has been in the U.S. Virgin Islands, developing a strong tech ecosystem, training technical talent, and evolving critical technical infrastructure.

Early in his 35+ year software engineering career, William was one of the first Black entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Through his company, Adamation, he developed mission-critical custom enterprise apps for Steve Jobs’ NeXT computers and pioneered a network instant messaging service purchased by the CIA. He holds two patents.

Today, in addition to his role at Microsoft, William is the philanthropic founder of The EV3NT, a collaborative, community-based hackathon designed to solve real-world problems. When he’s not tinkering with bits and bytes, the husband and father of three builds kitchen cabinets, knits, and tries to recapture the exhilaration of riding a motorcycle in India.