Lila Tretikov () (born Olga (Lyalya) Tretyakova, , January 25, 1978) is a Russian-American engineer and manager.

Early life and education

Tretikov was born in Moscow,

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. Her father is a mathematician, and her mother was a filmmaker. After moving to New York City at age 15, she learned English while waitressing and attended the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, but left before completing her degree. Her majors were computer science and art, and she researched

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

Career

In 1999, Tretikov began working as a

software engineer Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining software applications. It involves applying engineering principles and computer programming expertise to develop ...

in California, where she co-authored several software patents and was a specialist in

enterprise software Enterprise software, also known as enterprise application software (EAS), is computer software used to satisfy the needs of an organization rather than its individual users. Enterprise software is an integral part of a computer-based information ...

. Tretikov started her professional career at

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

as an engineer at the Sun-Netscape Alliance, where she worked on the

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

server. She then founded GrokDigital, a technology marketing company, and was later appointed chief information officer and vice president of engineering at SugarCRM Inc. In 2012, she was a Stevie Awards bronze winner in the category for "Female Executive of the YearBusiness Services11 to 2,500 EmployeesComputer Hardware & Software". She has co-authored several patents in intelligent

data mapping In computing and data management, data mapping is the process of creating data element mappings between two distinct data models. Data mapping is used as a first step for a wide variety of data integration tasks, including: * Data transforma ...

and dynamic language applications. Tretikov was appointed executive director of the

Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, and registered there as foundation (United States law), a charitable foundation. It is the host of Wikipedia, th ...

in May 2014 in succession to

Sue Gardner Sue Gardner (born May 11, 1967) is a Canadian journalist, not-for-profit executive and business executive. She was the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation from December 2007 until May 2014, and before that was the director of the C ...

and took up the post on June 1, 2014. She had edited Wikipedia only once before her appointment. Tretikov resigned from the Wikimedia Foundation as a result of the WMF's controversial Knowledge Engine project and disagreements with the staff, with her last day being March 31, 2016. She was succeeded by Katherine Maher in March 2016. On March 16, 2016, it was announced that Tretikov had been invited 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 ...

to join its Young Global Leaders community. Tretikov is also on the boards of OpenEd and Rackspace, and joined the board of directors of

Volvo Cars Volvo Car AB, trading as Volvo Cars (, styled VOLVO in the company's logo) is a Sweden, Swedish multinational manufacturer of luxury vehicles. Volvo is headquartered in Torslanda, Gothenburg. The company manufactures SUVs, station wagons, and ...

in March 2021. She joined Microsoft Corporation in 2018 and was Corporate Vice President & Deputy Chief Technology Officer. She then moved on to be Partner, Head of AI Strategy, at

New Enterprise Associates New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is an American-based venture capital firm. NEA focuses investment stages ranging from seed stage through growth stage across an array of industry sectors. With over $25 billion in committed capital, NEA is one of t ...

, a venture capital company. She also joined the Board of Directors of Xylem Inc.

Notes

References

External links

* User:LilaTretikov, user profile on Meta-Wiki
Lila Tretikov Discusses NSA Lawsuit, Future of Wikipedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tretikov, Lila 1978 births 21st-century American engineers 21st-century American women American Wikimedians American women chief executives Articles containing video clips Living people Russian businesspeople in the United States Russian emigrants to the United States Sun Microsystems people University of California, Berkeley alumni Wikimedia Foundation staff members Wikipedia people Women nonprofit executives Microsoft employees

Early life and education

Career

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links