If you’ve ever looked through my bio or attended one of my talks, you may have noticed that I’m a Microsoft Regional Director, often shortened to RD. The name can be a little misleading. No, I don’t manage a region for Microsoft, and no, I don’t work for Microsoft.

But I often get asked questions like:

• What is a Microsoft Regional Director?
• How do you become one?
• What do you do as an RD?
• What benefits do RDs get?
• And how is a Regional Director different from a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP)?

The Microsoft Regional Director program is one of Microsoft’s most respected global community and industry recognition programs. It’s designed to recognize trusted technology leaders who have strong business and technical credibility, deep community impact, and the ability to provide real-world strategic feedback.

In this post, I want to break down what the Microsoft Regional Director program is, how someone becomes an RD, what the expectations and benefits are, and why the program matters to Microsoft, customers, partners, and the broader technology community.

What is the Microsoft Regional Director program?

The Microsoft Regional Director program is a global, invitation-only group of roughly 150 technology leaders from around the world. Despite the title, it is not a job at Microsoft. It is an award and recognition program for individuals who are known as trusted advisors, industry influencers, and community leaders.

Regional Directors typically bring a combination of qualities that are hard to find in one person:

• Deep technical expertise across Microsoft technologies and beyond
• Strong understanding of business strategy and organizational priorities
• Real-world experience helping customers and partners solve meaningful problems
• Credibility in the community through speaking, writing, mentoring, and leadership

In other words, RDs tend to operate at the intersection of technology, business, and leadership. We don’t just understand how technology works. We help organizations understand why it matters, where it creates value, and how to use it effectively.

Background: why the RD program exists

The Regional Director program has been around since the early 1990s, which helps explain why it occupies a distinct place in Microsoft’s broader ecosystem of community and industry programs.

One thing that stands out in Microsoft’s official description of the program is that the RD program exists to give Microsoft access to grounded, real-world strategic feedback from influential people outside the company.

The public program materials emphasize that Regional Directors are trusted advisors who bring cross-platform technical expertise, community leadership, public speaking experience, online influence, and a commitment to business results. That mix helps explain why the program is structured the way it is.

It is not primarily about rewarding product loyalty. It is about building a trusted network of industry leaders who can help Microsoft understand what customers, partners, founders, executives, and technical communities are actually seeing in the real world.

What the RD title does not mean

This is often the most important part to clarify.

Being a Microsoft Regional Director does not mean:

• I am a Microsoft employee
• I manage a Microsoft sales territory or geographic region
• I am a spokesperson whose job is to promote every Microsoft decision or product

The value of the program comes from independence, credibility, and candor. Microsoft benefits from hearing informed, real-world feedback from people who are actively working with customers, partners, communities, and the market every day.

How do you become a Microsoft Regional Director?

Becoming a Regional Director is not something people typically apply for in the traditional sense. Candidates are generally identified through their work and nominated by Microsoft employees, peers, or others who know the impact they are having.

From the outside, the process can feel intentionally selective and a bit opaque. There isn’t a normal public checklist or standard application path that someone follows step by step.

Microsoft evaluates potential Regional Directors based on factors like:

• Strategic influence in helping organizations make business and technology decisions
• Breadth of perspective across industries, customers, and technical domains
• A demonstrated role as a trusted advisor to executives, developers, architects, IT professionals, founders, or business leaders
• Community impact through speaking, writing, mentoring, organizing events, or leading initiatives

The program is selective, global, and intentionally small. Appointments are time-bound and are typically renewed every two years, which means continued participation depends on ongoing impact and continued alignment with the purpose of the program.

What is expected of a Microsoft Regional Director?

The RD program is not about acting as a product evangelist. It is about contributing perspective, insight, and leadership.

Regional Directors are expected to:

• Provide honest strategic feedback to Microsoft leadership and product teams
• Share real-world customer, partner, and community perspectives
• Help connect people, ideas, and opportunities across Microsoft and the broader ecosystem
• Lead in the community through events, workshops, publications, and conversations

That means the role often looks different from person to person. Some RDs are known for enterprise strategy. Some are deeply active in startup ecosystems. Some lead technical communities. Some advise governments or large global organizations. What they share is influence, credibility, and a track record of meaningful impact.

What value do Regional Directors provide to Microsoft?

From Microsoft’s perspective, the RD program creates a strong feedback loop with leaders who are close to the market.

Regional Directors help Microsoft:

• Understand how products, platforms, and strategies are landing with real customers
• Hear cross-industry and cross-geography perspectives that may not show up in internal planning alone
• Identify friction, gaps, and opportunities earlier
• Strengthen relationships with enterprise, startup, partner, and community ecosystems

In many ways, RDs act as a bridge between Microsoft’s internal product and business teams and the realities of the outside world. That outside perspective is valuable because it is grounded in actual adoption, actual constraints, and actual business outcomes.

What are the benefits of being a Regional Director?

The group of Microsoft Regional Directors that attended the 2026 RD Summit in-person in Redmond, WA. Photo taken by Microsoft.

The RD program is not a paid role, but Microsoft does provide a meaningful set of benefits that help Regional Directors stay informed and effective.

These typically include:

• Access to Microsoft leaders, product groups, and strategic discussions
• Opportunities to participate in private briefings, summits, and advisory conversations
• Stronger connections into teams, programs, and communities across Microsoft
• Recognition as a trusted advisor with a respected global peer network

One of the most meaningful benefits, at least for me, is the community of fellow Regional Directors. Being part of a global network of experienced leaders means I get to learn from people with very different industry backgrounds, customer contexts, and strategic perspectives. That peer community sharpens my thinking and helps me bring better ideas and better judgment back to my own work.

That access matters, but not because it creates exclusivity for its own sake. It matters because it helps RDs give better feedback, build better connections, and bring better insights back to the customers, partners, and communities they serve.

It also comes with discretion. Not everything shared with RDs is intended for public distribution, so part of being effective in the program is knowing how to balance access, trust, confidentiality, and constructive feedback.

What makes someone a strong Regional Director?

While every RD has a different background, there are some common patterns.

Strong Regional Directors are usually:

• Trusted advisors who help leaders make better decisions
• Community builders who create spaces for people to learn and connect
• Thought leaders who contribute ideas, not just opinions
• Strategic technologists who can connect technical depth to business value
• People with broad perspective who understand how technology plays out in the real world

One of the strengths of the program is that it is intentionally diverse in experience, geography, industry, and point of view. That diversity makes the conversations better and makes the feedback more useful.

How is the RD program different from the MVP program?

This is one of the most common questions I get, and it’s a good one.

The Microsoft MVP and Microsoft Regional Director programs are both prestigious recognition programs, but they are not the same thing and they are designed for different kinds of impact.

In simple terms:

• The MVP program is generally centered on technical community contribution and recognized expertise in specific technologies or domains.
• The RD program is generally centered on strategic influence, business leadership, and trusted-advisor relationships in the broader technology industry.

Microsoft MVPs are often best known for highly visible technical contributions such as answering questions, creating technical content, speaking at community events, contributing to open source, leading user groups, and helping others succeed with Microsoft technologies.

Regional Directors may also do many of those same things, but the RD program tends to focus more heavily on people who operate at a strategic level, helping connect technology decisions to business outcomes while providing Microsoft with candid insight from customers, partners, founders, executives, and the market.

Another important difference is scope. The MVP program is much larger and spans many technical communities worldwide. The RD program is much smaller and intentionally limited to a relatively small group of industry leaders.

Neither program is “better” than the other. They serve different purposes. In fact, some individuals have been both MVPs and RDs because their work spans both deep technical community contribution and broader strategic industry leadership.

If I had to summarize it in one sentence, I would say this: MVPs are often recognized first for technical community impact, while RDs are often recognized first for strategic influence and trusted-advisor impact.

If you’d like to browse current Regional Directors, Microsoft maintains a public Find an RD directory.

How do Regional Directors benefit customers, partners, and the community?

The RD title is not only about helping Microsoft. The broader value of the program shows up in the work Regional Directors do every day.

Regional Directors help customers and partners by:

• Translating complex technologies into practical business and technical decisions
• Sharing patterns, lessons learned, and hard-earned experience
• Connecting people to the right ideas, communities, and opportunities
• Helping organizations adopt new technologies more effectively and responsibly

Regional Directors help the community by:

• Speaking at conferences, meetups, workshops, and executive forums
• Publishing articles, videos, and other educational content
• Mentoring emerging leaders, founders, architects, and developers
• Creating communities where people can grow their skills and careers

That broader impact is one of the reasons I value the program so much. The title is meaningful, but the real point is service: helping others move faster, make better decisions, and create more impact.

Why it matters to me

For me, being a Microsoft Regional Director is ultimately about responsibility, not status.

It is a reminder to stay close to the real challenges organizations are facing, to keep contributing to the community, and to keep offering honest, useful perspective to Microsoft and to the people I work with every day.

It’s also an honor to be part of a global network of leaders I respect deeply. The RD community includes people with remarkable experience, diverse viewpoints, and a shared desire to help others succeed.

A small group of Regional Directors in the evening at Summit 2026. Left to right, Adam Cogan, Eric Boyd (me), Michele Leroux Bustamante, Magnus Martensson, Rodrigo Diaz Concha

At the end of the day, that’s why the program matters. It helps Microsoft listen better. It helps customers and partners make better decisions. And it helps strengthen the communities that shape the future of technology.

If you’d like to see my official listing, you can view My Microsoft Regional Director profile. And if you have questions about the Microsoft Regional Director program, or you’re curious about how it connects to the work I do with enterprises, ISVs, and startups, feel free to reach out.