IN accented but precise English, Argentinian-born Mariana Castro says her life’s work has been making technology more accessible, especially to people in Latin America and the Caribbean.

She’s a woman who was always intent on plotting a career trajectory that would lead to where she is now — as Microsoft’s general manager of new markets in the region. After studying engineering at the University of Buenos Aires and later at the Universidad de Belgrano, Castro worked as a software consultant with an accounting firm in Argentina then eventually left to form a company with other partners.

But when Microsoft first entered her South American homeland in 1991, Castro said she was the third employee in its local office.

“I told everyone I knew in this world that my dream job was with Microsoft,” she said. “That’s how I found out the moment that Microsoft was opening in Argentina. I said, okay I’ll do whatever I need to do to get in there. They were hiring for a technical manager and that was me. It didn’t matter what it was – that was me.”

On Monday, the company announced a Windows PC tablet dubbed Surface (See related story on Page 13B) which features touch technology and will likely be sold as a competitor to Apple’s wildly successful iPad.

Castro said that the introduction of new technology from Microsoft provides a chance to establish new dialogue with the countries that house its individual operations around the world. In Jamaica, more than a million people use Microsoft products, suuch as the Office suite, daily.

A recent two-day visit here was Castro’s first to the island and included a meeting with some of Microsoft’s local partners and a presentation at the newly launched Caribbean Growth Forum about the development opportunities that technology holds for the region. Castro has responsibility for the software company’s presence in 36 countries, spanning the Caribbean, Central America, and places like Paraguay and Ecuador.

Twenty years of working with Microsoft has given her a unique perspective on the region’s immense pool of innovation potential, said Castro, one that is now barely being tapped into and stands to offer a direct life-line to growth.

“When I got out of the plane, the first thing I saw was the sign about Jamaica’s 50th anniversary, and the first thing that I wondered was how competitive is Jamaica — with the many things that it is well known for, sports, music,” said Castro. “How do you get all that to being a competitive force compared to the Caribbean and the rest of the world? That’s the question.”

Microsoft has had offices in Jamaica for 12 years, and works through private-public sector initiatives to build on techie talent blooming right here on The Rock — such as the Northern Caribbean University students who were named 2010 champions of ImagineCup, a global software design competition hosted by the company.

Her own experience in the industry has also made Castro a firm believer in the need to bring women into the process of technological innovation. She points to a talk she gave to a group of female Jamaican students who are a part of a Microsoft-headed program to bring more girls onto the technology train.

“Females out there think technology means dealing with cables, sitting down there on the floor doing all sorts of things with screwdrivers. I started out alot like that,” she said. “But today, technology also has to do with how you apply it to many other uses. Talking to young women like we do in DigiGirlz, we try to make them enthused to get into technology because of the opportunities that it has.”

Castro maintained that the sector cannot be a world thought out by men, and jokes that her two daughters manage her cellphone better than she does. Women, she said, have clout as consumers of newly developed technology.

“When we think of the products and the use of those products and the use of the technology that we develop, it cannot be done just by men,” she said. “But in most of Latin America and the Caribbean in general, in the IT business, only 25 per cent of the workforce is women.”

Castro’s job has afforded her the ability to travel, and she does so for about two weeks every month — meeting with partners and governments while immersing herself in what she calls the “diversity of this market”.

“There is still a lot to do to position Latin America and the Caribbean at the centre of development and technology,” she said. “But I do think that the capacity is there, the talent is here.”

Microsoft’s Jamaican office said it is committed to supporting local programs that can foster that kind of talent, with programs such as BizSpark, which give technology startups free access to Microsoft software, as well as planned support for the Digital JAM mobile app development competition.

Castro also supports taking this effort to people all over the world.

“Microsoft had a vision — a PC on every desk in every house — a vision that today translates into realising people’s potential through the magic of software,” she said. “I really love the opportunity to be a part of that vision.”