With over 16 years of experience across diverse industries in the Americas and MENA regions, Rola Darwish has a proven track record of establishing business strategies, executing with excellence, and delivering measurable results. She began her professional journey in the field of marketing and communications, where she played pivotal roles within multiple international organizations, gaining deep insight into expanding in new regions. Rola’s expertise and leadership have earned her numerous accolades, including the prestigious FY22 Microsoft Platinum Award for outstanding performance, placing her in the top 1% at Microsoft globally.
Rola’s career highlights include leading the Azure acquisition in Microsoft Canada, where she achieved the #1 position for three consecutive years by creating a customer resiliency framework that was adopted as a global best practice. She spearheaded the creation and adoption of Well-Architected and Cloud Adoption Frameworks to fuel digital transformation efforts for enterprise customers and led the adoption of comprehensive cybersecurity frameworks to improve customers’ security posture and resilience against cyberattacks.
At Microsoft, Rola was a member of the customer success account management leadership team. She managed a team of Customer Success Account Managers focused on various industries, including financial services, energy, Telco, ISVs, Retail, and Manufacturing. Her ability to synthesize insights, coach her team, and lead strategic cloud delivery projects has been key to her success.
In her current role as Director of Cybersecurity at Calian IT & Cybersecurity Solutions, Rola is responsible for developing and leading end-to-end security strategies and execution plans to drive Microsoft security stack adoption, and cybersecurity managed and professional services demand. Her role involves building and executing migration and retention strategies, partnering closely with sales and delivery teams, and crafting security services offerings.
Driven by her passion for fostering global business partnerships, Rola has also worked as a Marketing Account Manager at Ingram Micro Canada, where she developed overall cloud marketing strategies and managed million-dollar marketing budgets. Her dedication to excellence and innovation has earned her numerous awards, including the Courageous Learner Award, Partner’s Best Partner Award, and Digital Pioneer Award.
Some of Rola’s key achievements include:
- Microsoft Platinum Award: Awarded the FY22 Microsoft Platinum Award for outstanding performance, placing her in the top 1% at Microsoft globally.
- Azure Acquisition: Led Azure acquisition in Canada, achieving the #1 position for three consecutive years by creating a customer resiliency framework that was adopted as a global best practice.
- Cloud Adoption and Operational Health: Spearheaded the adoption of the Well-Architected and Cloud Adoption Framework to fuel digital transformation efforts for enterprise customers.
- Cloud Financial Management: Launched and developed Cloud Economics and FinOps customer engagements and field enablement in partnership with Microsoft Corporation Finance and Worldwide Learning teams.
- Canada’s Skilling and Employment: Managed Azure Skilling in Canada to drive successful cloud adoption and employment with a focus on minority groups and Microsoft customers.
- Outstanding Mentor Award: Received the Outstanding Mentor Award for New Immigrants from ACCESS Canada and IECBC.
Rola’s always-learning mindset has fueled her focus on continuous upskilling in technical areas across cloud and AI technologies, business, marketing, negotiation, and sales skills.
Throughout her career, Rola has worked closely with senior executives, leading both small and large international teams in matrix organizations. Her passion and results-focused approach have allowed her to acquire diverse skills and achieve a career full of accomplishments and tangible business results.