Why Julia White Could Be the Fresh Face of a 'New Microsoft'

— -- intro: What is "cool" anyway?

You could easily argue it's Julia White.

The leather jacket wearing Microsoft executive is easily one of the freshest faces to emerge from the company in years.

White, who is the general manager of Microsoft Office product marketing, stepped into the spotlight in March when she co-presented alongside Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at the launch of Office for iPad.

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Microsoft clearly knows a good thing when they see it -- and have decided to shine the spotlight on White even more in one of its Microsoft Stories series.

Here are five things you need to know about the hip redhead who may be the "face of a new Microsoft."

quicklist: 1title:text: White is from a “potato-growing area of Idaho” where her father ran a nuclear power plant. The family later lived in Orlando, Florida and Issaquah, Washington.

quicklist: 2title: text: She revels in her status as an "outlier." In 1999 –- before the tech bubble burst –- White left the Bay Area to attend Harvard Business School. As a woman and “literally one of the only tech people at HBS ... I was definitely an outlier," she said.

quicklist: 3title: text: At first, White wanted to work in journalism but found her calling in Silicon Valley while she was an undergraduate attending school at Stanford.

quicklist: 4title: text: She's a Microsoft veteran who has been with the company for 13 years.

quicklist: 5title:text: She's sporty! White was once an Olympic hopeful in synchronized swimming. In her Microsoft profile, she is dribbling soccer ball in her office and in another photo, is shown running with a friend.