Ardine Williams served as Vice President, Workforce Development for Amazon from 2019 until 2022, after having served as Vice President, Talent Acquisition for Amazon Web Services from 2014 until 2019. In her role as Vice President, Workforce Development, Williams advised teams and businesses across Amazon on talent attraction and development. She also worked closely with community and state leaders to grow a strong talent pipeline for the region and to ensure educational pathways include the digital skills necessary for the careers of today and tomorrow. Williams’ work focused heavily on accelerating Amazon’s upskilling initiative to provide access to education and skills training for 300,000 employees by 2025. As Vice President, Talent Acquisition for Amazon Web Services, Williams scaled the recruiting capability for Amazon’s rapidly growing cloud computing business – including strengthening AWS’ pipeline of military and veteran talent through innovative Department of Labor-certified apprenticeship programs.These programs have successfully transitioned more than 1,000 veterans and spouses to in-demand, technical roles in cloud computing. Her work helped grow the AWS organization from 4,400 to more than 28,000 employees in just over two years.
Williams has more than 35 years of leadership experience across the tech industry. Before joining Amazon, Williams served from 1997 to 2014 in multiple executive roles at Intel Corporation – from product management to corporate venture capital to enterprise services. Prior to Intel, Williams worked in the NetServer Division of Hewlett Packard and in various positions for Behring Company.
A U.S. Army veteran who began her career as a commissioned officer in the Signal Corps, Williams is known for her work in recruiting military veterans and their spouses. She served as the executive sponsor for US Veterans at Intel and represented the company in meetings about veterans’ issues and immigration with multiple governmental agencies. Williams was also a member of the White House’s Joining Forces Initiative industry working team and the President’s Job Council working team. Williams was an appointed member of the Washington State Educational Investment Oversight and Accountability Board from 2020-2021, and also served on the Greater Washington D.C. Partnership CoLAB (Collaborative of Leaders in Academia and Business) Advisory Board. She currently serves as Secretary of the Board of Visitors for the College of William & Mary.
Williams serves as chair of Strada’s Policy & Advocacy Committee.
Williams received her Bachelor’s degree from Pacific Lutheran University, and has completed the executive program at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.