A representative from Marquette visited University of Detroit Jesuit High School when Chris Morrissey was a junior there. It was on the heels of Marquette’s men’s basketball national championship in 1977 and some of Chris’ friends had siblings who attended the university. It was not a hard sell from there.
“We did a road trip up to Milwaukee and just kind of checked it out,” Morrissey says. “Then, it was in the game plan that I was going to go to Marquette.”
That decision laid the foundation for Morrissey’s career, which spanned industries from automotives to chemicals to his current role as the senior director of communications for Windows and devices at Microsoft. At each step along the way, Morrissey has centered the lessons in servant leadership that he first learned as a Marquette Business student.
When you think back to your Marquette years, are there any memories or images that immediately come to mind?
I remember Dean (Thomas) Bausch of the business school talking to us about where our careers might take us. I also remember that I got a job at the downtown Hilton and worked the midnight shift in the parking lot, of all places, so I could do my homework while working. Every morning, they let me take a copy of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal home. Reading those papers opened my mind up a lot.
You’ve had an interest in technology that has stayed consistent throughout your career. How did that start?
When I was hired for my first job at Chrysler, which is now Stellantis, they brought in a new PC. And all the older workers were like, “no, that thing’s not for me.” And I’m like, “I’ll jump right into it!”
Part of my advancement came from embracing that new technology, even when it scared other people. The first thing you have to do is embrace new challenges and new ways of doing things. When you use it enough that you understand it, then you adjust your playbook.
What does your job at Microsoft entail day-to-day?
I focus on servicing Windows devices. When we deliver features or big updates, my team is involved in the first iteration of them. We have a Windows Insider program where people can opt in to get new features right away, and my team does all the communications for that. We’ll do videos to explain to consumers how things work and handle comms on any problems that come up.
I manage a distributed team with people around the globe. Between us, we communicate in 36 different languages. We work 24/7 and people in almost every country rely on our technology to support utilities, governments, hospitals, front line workers, students and gamers, just to name a few. We really feel like we’re part of the fabric of society.
What is a recent example of a crisis your team had to deal with?
Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity company, had an issue with one of their products that impacted a lot of Windows devices. When that happened, we immediately pivoted to figuring out how to help our customers. My team was one of the first to put communications out about the situation once we figured out what was going on.
Our attitude was: let’s not point fingers. Let’s just get folks back up and running. We took thousands of people within the company and reassigned them to customer service so that we could take care of everyone who needed help. But it was global news; it was pretty much covered everywhere.
In a situation like that, how do the principles you learned at Marquette inform your response?
I think it’s about putting others first, not yourself. We could have just said, “hey, that’s not our problem, we didn’t do that,” but instead we need to lean into helping the customers and the ecosystem. So instead, we asked what we could do to help, and were able to reach PCs at scale like nobody else in the world.
You’ve become quite involved in community service work in the Seattle area since you moved there. What do you do and why is it important to you?
When you live in a big city, you see people from all different walks of life. You start to ask: how can I be engaged? How can I help?
I started by volunteering at food banks, mostly helping to move boxes and distribute food. I realized I was volunteering there regularly enough that I wanted to join the board. Then I became the treasurer, then I was elected board chair.
Our organization, North Helpline, runs two food banks, does homelessness prevention programs and we also have a collaboration with the Seattle Indian Health Board, which has a medical clinic and a dental truck that goes around to do on-the-spot checkups.
You have three kids and recently became a grandfather. When you look at your kids, how much of yourself do you see in them?
I see a lot of myself and I definitely see a lot of their mother in them too. That’s probably why they’re really intelligent! I see in them a lot of inquisitiveness. They like to travel, to meet people and they all have open minds. If there’s one thing I’d like to think they inherited from me, it’s having a growth mindset. That’s the most important thing, and it doesn’t matter what age you are. You can have a growth mindset at six or 60 years old. It keeps you young.
