Board of Directors
Mary McDowell served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Mitel Networks Corporation, a telecommunications company, from October 2019 to November 2021. Previously, Ms. McDowell served as the chief executive officer and member of the board for Polycom, Inc. from 2016 until the company was acquired by Plantronics, Inc. in 2018. Prior to joining Polycom, Ms. McDowell was in charge of Nokia’s Mobile Phones unit, where she successfully built on Nokia’s No. 1 position in feature phones with a refreshed and compelling new portfolio of devices and services targeted to meet the needs of urban youth in emerging markets.
She also had responsibility for Nokia’s global developer organization. She served as a member of the Nokia Leadership Team from 2004 - 2012 and as a member of the Navteq board, following its acquisition by Nokia in 2008.
Ms. McDowell joined Nokia in 2004 as executive vice president and general manager of Enterprise Solutions, responsible for the development and marketing of Nokia's range of business-oriented devices and solutions. Mary served as executive vice president and chief development officer, leading the Corporate Development unit, from 2008 until assuming the Mobile Phones unit role.
Before joining Nokia, Mary served 17 years at HP-Compaq, after joining as a systems engineer in 1986. She was senior vice president and general manager of the Industry-Standard Servers Group at Hewlett Packard and Compaq for five years, leading a multi-billion dollar business and the world's largest server franchise.
Ms. McDowell has served as Board Chair of Mitel Networks Corporation since 2021 and as lead director of Informa plc. since 2021, having served as a director of Informa plc since 2018.
She holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Illinois College of Engineering, who recently granted her the Distinguished Alumni award. She serves on the College's Board of Visitors.
