Joel Cherkis is the Chief Technology Officer and General Manager of the Worldwide Technology Office within Microsoft’s Worldwide Public Sector division. He leads a team of sales, business development, and technology professionals that support global policy decisions and deliver technology relevance and scalable solutions into Public Sector markets around the world.

In his previous role, Joel was the General Manager of the Government Solutions team and supported industry solutions focused on Health & Human Services, Justice & Public Safety, Homeland Security, DOD initiatives, e-Government, and emerging technologies. Prior to joining Microsoft, Joel spent 9 years with Oracle Corporation where he developed businesses focused on collaboration, application services and database driven technologies for Public Sector and commercial customers. His career began as a developer with Mobil Oil Corporation and he continues to stay focused on understanding how and when technology should be used to solve business problems.

Joel has over 20 years of IT and development experience and has spent the past 10 years helping customers and partners better utilize collaborative solutions and the processes of infrastructure consolidation. He holds a degree in Computer Information Systems with a concentration in Decision Support Systems from James Madison University and has worked as a database design architect, developer, and network engineer in various capacities.