Lila Ibrahim is an American engineer and businesswoman. She was hired in 2018 as

Google DeepMind DeepMind Technologies Limited, trading as Google DeepMind or simply DeepMind, is a British–American artificial intelligence research laboratory which serves as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Founded in the UK in 2010, it was acquired by Goo ...

's first

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

. Her previous roles include Chief Operations Officer at

Coursera Coursera Inc. () is an American global massive open online course provider. It was founded in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Coursera works with universities and other organizations to offe ...

, Senior Operating Partner at

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneur ...

, and Chief of Staff to Intel CEO and Chairman Craig Barrett.

Early life and education

Ibrahim's parents immigrated to the United States. Ibrahim studied electrical and computer engineering at

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

. She earned her bachelor's degree in 1993. She was a member of the

STEM Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

sorority

Phi Sigma Rho Phi Sigma Rho (; also known as Phi Rho or PSR) is a social sorority for individuals who identify as female or non-binary in engineering and technology. The sorority was founded in 1984 at Purdue University. It has since expanded to more than 40 ...

Career

Ibrahim started in 1993 at Intel as a design engineer on the Pentium processor. During 18 years at Intel she held various technical, marketing, and leadership positions, including serving as Chief of Staff for Craig Barrett. As of 2010 she sat on the Global Council of

Thunderbird School of Global Management The Thunderbird School of Global Management (or simply Thunderbird) is a global leadership, management, and business school at Arizona State University, a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. It was founded in 1946 as an i ...

. Ibrahim was appointed Chief of Staff at

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firm

in 2010. Through Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers she began to work with

. Ibrahim was made President of

in 2013, later Chief Business and Operating Officer, and remained there until 2017. During this time she was appointed to the U.S.

Secretary of Commerce The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary rep ...

's National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. In April 2018 Ibrahim was hired as the first Chief Operating Officer of

DeepMind DeepMind Technologies Limited, trading as Google DeepMind or simply DeepMind, is a British–American artificial intelligence research laboratory which serves as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Founded in the UK in 2010, it was acquired by Go ...

. In 2023 Ibrahim and DeepMind founders

Demis Hassabis Sir Demis Hassabis (born 27 July 1976) is a British artificial intelligence (AI) researcher, and entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Google DeepMind, and Isomorphic Labs, and a UK Government AI Adviser. In 2024, Ha ...

and

Shane Legg Shane Legg (born ) is a machine learning researcher and entrepreneur. With Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman, he cofounded DeepMind Technologies (later bought by Google and now called Google DeepMind), and works there as the chief AGI scienti ...

signed a

Center for AI Safety The Center for AI Safety (CAIS) is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, that promotes the safe development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI). CAIS's work encompasses research in technical AI safety and AI ethics, advoca ...

statement declaring that "Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war." According to ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'', Ibrahim's duties at DeepMind include the management of that risk.

Recognition

In 2007, Ibrahim was recognised by the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

as a

Young Global Leader Forum of Young Global Leaders, or Young Global Leaders (YGL), is a non-profit organization. The organization was created by Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum and is managed from Geneva, Switzerland, under the supervision of the Sw ...

. In 2009, she was featured on the cover of

ForbesWoman ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The c ...

for her role promoting women in technology. In 2010, she was awarded the Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award for Social Impact. In 2019, Ibrahim was named to ''

Business Insider ''Business Insider'' (stylized in all caps: BUSINESS INSIDER; known from 2021 to 2023 as INSIDER) is a New York City–based multinational financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Inside ...

'''s list of Most Influential Leaders Shaping Business Tech in the UK and Most Interesting & Impactful Women in Tech in the UK. In 2023, she was included on ''Time'''s list of 100 Most Influential People in AI.

Personal life

Ibrahim is

Lebanese-American Lebanese Americans () are Americans of Lebanese descent. This includes both those who are native to the United States of America, as well as immigrants from Lebanon and Latin America. Lebanese Americans comprise 0.79% of the American populatio ...

. She has twin daughters.

Early life and education

Career

Recognition

Personal life

References

Further reading