A bright student fascinated by political movements, Aleksey studied international relations at Saint Petersburg State University with the goal of applying his education to effect change. But he became disillusioned with the nonprofit sector and started seeing the business world as a more powerful force for impacting society. He headed off to business school and discovered a passion for marketing and branding, disciplines he believed could help make a difference in people’s lives by conveying the good work businesses were doing.
Aleksey was part of a student team that won a Microsoft business competition, and soon after completing a master’s degree in international business in 2011 he was offered a job at Microsoft’s Moscow office. The position, which would be the first of 11 at Microsoft in as many years, involved generating fans and brand love for Windows. Aleksey helped create Windows collaborations with large companies including Disney and Starbucks and drove marketing for Windows apps in Russia.
“Microsoft was kind of a merger of passions for me—for technology and for doing something amazing for the public good with technology,” Aleksey says. “I was always drawn to Microsoft because I feel like the company is fundamentally standing up for the right things.”
Life was going well. Aleksey’s career was flourishing, and he was dating a man, Nikolay, who would later become their husband. They met during the 2011 protests around Russia’s elections and some of their first dates were on the streets of Moscow at demonstrations. When Russia invaded and subsequently annexed Crimea in 2014, they took to the streets again.
But that year, the Russian government passed a law criminalizing protests, and one day Nikolay was arrested and fined. If that happened again, Aleksey knew Nikolay could face a criminal sentence and possible prison time. Staying in Russia was becoming too dangerous. So, Aleksey decided to apply for a job at Microsoft in the United States.
“I really loved my work at Microsoft in Russia, but I wanted to have more impact on the strategy and work—not just in the go-to-market aspect, but the idea behind what we’re doing and why we’re doing it,” he says. “And so these two forces, there was a confluence of them.”
Aleksey was offered a marketing position with Windows Store at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, and moved with Nikolay, a visual artist, to Seattle in 2015. A few weeks later, the couple went to Seattle’s Pride parade. It turned out to be a pivotal moment for Aleksey personally and professionally.
At the time, Aleksey says, they didn’t perceive Pride as being very visible at Microsoft’s headquarters. The company had long supported LGBTQIA+ rights and was sponsoring Pride efforts in cities around the world, but Aleksey believed Microsoft had an opportunity to be even more vocal about its values. He envisioned a campaign that would use Microsoft’s platform to amplify LGBTQIA+ voices and create a movement that could engage with customers, with the goal of driving societal change.
Aleksey was elected as Microsoft’s worldwide Pride campaign co-chair in 2017, helping lead a team of more than 200 volunteers working on events in 60 cities around the world. The following year, the team interviewed LGBTQIA+ employees across the company and featured their stories on a new website and on social media.
In 2019, the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, Microsoft Pride took a significant step forward. Aleksey worked with Microsoft’s industrial design team to develop a Pride Surface type cover and skin, as well as Windows wallpapers and other Pride-related products, to promote inclusion for the LGBTQIA+ community.
As Aleksey saw it, “We have these tremendous products which have millions of customer touch points every single day, and that’s the best channel we have. If we release something for Pride—for Surface or for Office or for Xbox—we will reach millions of people.
“We know that proximity drives empathy,” they say, “and when people are exposed to these messages, they’re more likely to change their minds or act in support of the community.”
That year, Aleksey—who by then had moved from head of brand strategy for Microsoft Store to head of executive communications for Microsoft Gaming—received a company award for their work in promoting diversity and inclusion efforts and revamping brand and design guidelines for Microsoft Store.
Accepting the award, Aleksey was quick to credit their community. “This is about all of us, because every day we make choices (about) who we include and who we do not include,” they said, addressing the audience at the awards ceremony. “This is for all of us making the change in this company and beyond.
Still, Aleksey has been instrumental in driving the vision around Microsoft’s Pride campaign and determining how to build upon it year after year, says Eileen Mikloiche, one of three global Pride co-chairs, along with Aleksey and iAsia Brown in 2022. Since 2021, Aleksey has been the worldwide membership cochair for GLEAM, Microsoft’s employee resource group for the LGBTQIA+ community, one of nine such groups that reflect Microsoft’s diverse employee base. His work with GLEAM, combined with his position in Microsoft branding, gives him a unique perspective on both the internal and external aspects of Microsoft’s Pride campaign, Eileen says.
Aleksey has a clear vision of what he wants to achieve, she says, and doesn’t take no for an answer when he’s passionate about something, which is often.
“You just feel his passion because it’s authentic. It comes from his heart,” she says. “He inspires people to want to be part of something bigger and to see what they can contribute to bring it to life. When you encounter someone like that, the passion is contagious. The excitement is contagious.”