Michaela Barnes is a Director, Product Management at VeriSign. Colleagues describe her as "Michaela is one of those rare people who can take a tense situation and get people back on track and thinking clearly. I still don't know how she does it - it's a black magic mix of calm, humor and authority that just gets people back on task. She's great to work with and I'd jump at the chance to work with her again.", "I worked with Michaela on several projects while she was at AOL. She had a way of seamlessly blending the technology and the business together to answer tough questions and solve problems. Her network was quite broad, and she always seemed to have just the right contacts to help with any problem. Undoubtedly, this is the result of the energy she puts into maintaining those relationships: there's no favor I've done to help her in the past that hasn't been repaid tenfold. Michaela is a great collaborator and I'd be delighted to work with her any time!", and "Michaela is one of those rare people in technology who is not only well-versed in both technical and business matters but can also bridge the gap between the two. She uses this skill to bring constituents from across groups together and more significantly, help them to understand one another. At AOL, Michaela was well respected by both business and technical camps, and I personally relied on her keen insight and sound counsel both in making strategic decisions and tackling tactical problems. Beyond her understanding of strategy, Michaela had a keen insight of how to navigate our organization, which made her extremely effective. She was able to bring greater information sharing between groups inside the company, and she spearheaded efforts to bring AOL into a broader technical ecosystem, working with her team to encourage open and transparent communications, participation in standards bodies, and a greater awareness of the technical community in which the company operates. On top of this, she's one of the nicest and most caring people you'll ever meet. I have no hesitation in recommending Michaela, and I know that she will excel at anything she does."