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TechMost Powerful Women

Meet the Woman Who Runs Amazon’s Alexa Unit

By
Leena Rao
Leena Rao
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By
Leena Rao
Leena Rao
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October 25, 2016, 12:00 PM ET
Photograph by Brian Smale for Fortune
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Age: 44

From: Seattle

Veteran Affair: Reid has spent almost her entire career at Amazon (AMZN), where she is now director of product for its Amazon Echo devices and Alexa unit. She carries a purple badge that designates employees who have been at the company for 15 years or more. With each new Amazon role, “I feel like I’ve taken a job at a new startup,” she says.

Fast Friend: Reid leads the team behind Alexa, Amazon’s artificial-intelligence-powered, voice-activated assistant, which controls Echo, its popular home automation device. A recent development: training Alexa to turn down music playback when a person asks her a question. “We tried to emulate what a real person would do,” Reid says.

Fair Warning: Reid set up her own Echo device to tell her if it is raining in Seattle so that she grabs her umbrella.

Lift Ticket: When Reid isn’t driving her daughters (ages 10 and 13) to soccer games, she loves to snowboard and ski. Says Reid: “The weekends are for time with my kids.”

For more on Amazon, watch this Fortune video:

A version of this article appears in the November 1, 2016 issue of Fortune with the headline “Toni Reid—Director of Product, Amazon.”

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