Jun 17, 2025

Jun 17, 2025 • GCV reporters Michelle Gonzalez, corporate vice president and global head at M12, is one of the 100 leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2025 Powerlist Michelle Gonzalez has been corporate vice president and global head of M12 for nearly four years. She was headhunted for the position and was attracted by the role because she felt it would allow her to have real impact on a broad, global scale. Since joining M12, the CVC arm has expanded its active portfolio to more than 100 investments and 20 exits. So far in 2025, M12 has invested in US-based AI engineering and LLM evaluation platform Arize AI, designed to help companies test and evaluate AI products, and UK-headquartered software development firm Solve Intelligence. While some of Microsoft’s most headline-grabbing investments in generative AI – such as the relationship with OpenAI – have come directly through the parent corporation rather than M12, the CVC unit has built strong expertise in this area. So far in 2025, M12 has invested in US-based AI engineering and LLM evaluation platform Arize AI, designed to help companies test and evaluate AI products, and UK-headquartered software development firm Solve Intelligence, which enables in-browser document editing for patent attorneys. Gonzalez was ahead of the trend in bringing the CVC unit closer to the parent corporation, having made this shift in 2023. The unit retains autonomy in investment decisions but engages closely with Microsoft senior executives, providing updates, pitching new ideas and sharing insights. Before Microsoft and M12, Gonzalez was managing partner at Area 120, Google’s internal incubator, where she led a transformation to coordinate the organisation’s strategy and investment criteria with Google’s core businesses. During her tenure, a record number of projects were spun in to become key products at the company. Gonzalez began her career in corporate innovation at consulting firm McKinsey & Co. She previously gained experience as a partner at IBM Ventures and as a senior product and business leader at Apple, leading product for the news, books and movies businesses outside the US. She was also an entrepreneur-in-residence and investor at Comcast Ventures. One of Gonzalez’s hobbies is connecting people and learning through conversation, which led her to co-found the Influencer Series, a community of technology leaders, which has hosted more than 90 roundtable discussions with 4,000 founders, investors and tech executives since 2010. The Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist represents the 100 individuals spearheading the future of the corporate venturing industry. These individuals excel in terms of their venturing approach and structure, number and quality of portfolio companies and in their contributions to the corporate venturing profession.