Carina de Vries [MVP]

Carina de Vries is a Microsoft MVP for Microsoft 365, Teams and Copilot, an IT adoption expert, speaker, and host with more than fourteen years of experience helping organizations turn technology into something people can actually understand, use, and benefit from.

Her career started in office automation and application management, giving her a broad perspective on the digital workplace: from technology and IT management to end users, work processes, behavior, and organizational change. Today, she specializes in the human side of Microsoft 365, Teams, Copilot, and AI adoption.

Carina is particularly interested in what happens after technology has been implemented. Because making a tool available is not the same as changing the way people work. Her work explores the gap between implementation and actual adoption: why people embrace technology, why they resist it, and what organizations need to do differently to create lasting change.

Her approach is built around three principles: Verwonderen, Versimpelen and Verankeren — first understanding what is really happening, then making change simpler and easier to grasp, and finally embedding new behavior into everyday work.

Alongside her work in IT adoption, Carina is an experienced speaker, podcast and radio host, and active member of the Microsoft community. She has spoken at *Microsoft Ignite, where her session on moving from Copilot pilot to productivity was selected as one of the Top 10 MVP Theater Sessions. She is also a board member of Dutch Women in Tech*, contributing to greater visibility, connection, and opportunities for women in the technology industry.

As a host, Carina combines curiosity with a talent for asking the question behind the question. She enjoys conversations at the intersection of technology, work, leadership, and human behavior — especially when they challenge assumptions about how technological change actually happens.

Her guiding belief is simple: technology may enable change, but people determine whether it creates value.