Teresa Carlson

Industry Leadership of the Year

When the pandemic hit, Amazon Web Services had to “flex and change the way we operate,” said Teresa Carlson, head of the company’s global public sector team. “We reached out directly to our customers and government leaders to ask how we could bring our expertise to bear. And then we acted fast. We’ve been focused on supporting customers around the world to keep businesses running and classes going, speed research projects, and determine where health care resources are most needed.” This year made clear that the technology that AWS offers is key to the government’s missions, especially as things have gone remote, Carlson said. “This year showed us that people expect the same world-class technology from government that they expect when they log onto Netflix or shop online. And the pandemic made clear that sometimes technology platforms are the only interface organizations will have with citizens, so failure is not an option.”