My New Role as EMEA Global Black Belt (GBB) for Sovereign Cloud at Microsoft

I am thrilled to share some exciting news with you all—I am starting a new chapter in my Microsoft journey as Global Black Belt (GBB) for Sovereign Cloud! 🎉

In this role, I’ll be focusing on Microsoft sovereign cloud solutions, including hybrid cloud, multicloud, and edge computing. My mission is to work with some of our most strategic customers across the EMEA region, helping them accelerate their digital transformation while addressing the unique challenges and opportunities of sovereignty, compliance, and innovation in the cloud.

Why Digital Sovereignty Matters

In today’s world, digital sovereignty has become a critical priority for governments, public sector organizations, and highly regulated industries. It’s not just about where data is stored—it’s about who has control over it, how it is accessed, and ensuring compliance with local laws and regulations.

Sovereign cloud solutions allow organizations to:

• Maintain control over their data while still leveraging the agility and innovation of the public cloud.
• Comply with local and regional regulations around data residency, privacy, and security.
• Empower innovation by combining trusted cloud platforms with the flexibility of hybrid, multicloud, and edge scenarios.
• Build resilience and trust by aligning cloud adoption with national and organizational sovereignty strategies.

As the digital economy grows, the ability to ensure trust, compliance, and innovation at the same time will define the success of cloud adoption strategies. Sovereign cloud plays a key role in enabling that balance.

My Role

As part of Microsoft’s Cloud & AI Platforms in the Commercial Solution Area (CSA) organization, I’ll be working closely with executives, technical leaders, and decision-makers—supporting complex cloud projects, removing technical roadblocks, and ensuring that our customers can take full advantage of Microsoft’s trusted cloud platforms and Microsoft’s comprehensive spectrum of digital sovereignty capabilities such as Sovereign Public Cloud, Sovereign Private Cloud, and National Partner Clouds. This includes solutions such as Azure Arc, Azure Local, M365 Local, Windows Server, SQL, and more.

It’s a role that blends deep technical expertise with strategic engagement at the CxO level, and I’m incredibly excited to contribute by:

• Advising customers on their sovereign and hybrid cloud strategies.
• Supporting competitive technical scenarios and driving Azure adoption.
• Creating reusable reference architectures, accelerators, and demos to scale innovation.
• Acting as a trusted advisor, connecting customer feedback with our product engineering teams.
• Continuing to share knowledge and thought leadership with the wider community.

Looking Back

Over the past years, I had the privilege of serving as a Principal Program Manager & Chief Evangelist for Azure Hybrid in the Azure engineering team (Cloud + AI). That role allowed me to connect deeply with the global community, create content, and work directly with customers to showcase the power of hybrid, multicloud, edge, and sovereign solutions in Azure.

I’m grateful for every opportunity, conversation, and collaboration I had in that role—it was an incredible experience that shaped me for this next step.

What’s Next?

I’ll continue to blog, create videos, and speak at events to share best practices, customer stories, and technical insights. Sovereign cloud is a fast-moving and highly impactful space, and I look forward to engaging with all of you as we explore what’s possible.

Thank you for being part of this journey with me—I couldn’t do it without this amazing community. 🙏

Stay tuned for more content, and as always, feel free to reach out on X.com, LinkedIn, or here on the blog.