Padmasree Warrior (born Yellepeddi Padmasree) is an Indian-American businesswoman and technology executive. She is known for her leadership roles in technology firms like

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...

where she was the CTO for seven years, and at

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

where she was the CTO for five years. She also was the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Nio USA, an electric car maker. Currently, she is the founder and CEO of Fable, a curated reading platform focused on mental wellness. She is on the board of directors of

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

and

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

. In 2014, she was listed as one of the 100 most powerful woman in the world by ''Forbes''. In 2018 she was also featured among "America's Top 50 Women In Tech" by

Forbes ''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 co ...

Early life

Yellepeddi Padmasree was born into a Telugu family in

Vijayawada Vijayawada ( ), formerly known by its colonial name Bezawada, is the second largest city and a major commercial hub in the Andhra Pradesh state of India. The city forms an integral part of the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region and is situated on th ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

, India. She went to school at the Children's Montessori School and Maris Stella College in Vijayawada. Warrior received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from IIT Delhi in 1982. She holds a master's degree in chemical engineering from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Career

Motorola

Warrior joined Motorola in 1984 Over the course of her 23 years at the company she was Corporate Vice-president and general manager of Motorola's Energy Systems Group, and Corporate Vice-president and Chief Technology Officer in its Semiconductor Products Sector. Immediately prior to becoming Motorola's CTO, she was general manager of Thoughtbeam, a product of Motorola, in

Tempe, Arizona Tempe ( ; ''Oidbaḍ'' in O'odham language, O'odham) is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2020 population of 180,587. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in t ...

. When named Motorola's CTO in January 2003, Warrior became a senior vice-president and in 2005 she was promoted to executive vice-president. During Warrior's tenure as CTO, Motorola was awarded the 2004 National Medal of Technology by the President of the United States, the first time the company had received this honour. During this period she was a proponent of "Seamless Mobility" – the concept of having seamless communication across all facets of a person's life. The dream was not fully realised and the concept was eventually dropped from Motorola marketing presentations.

Cisco

On 4 December 2007, she left Motorola to become CTO at

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, m ...

. She left

in June 2015.

NIO

She joined the Chinese electric car company, NIO Inc, in December 2015 as a board member and as CEO and chief development officer for NIO U.S. She resigned from NIO in December 2018.

Fable

In September 2019, Warrior founded a new startup, Fable, and is its president and CEO. In January 2021, Fable launched its app, a subscription-based book recommendation engine and private social network. Warrior has said they're working to improve cognitive fitness.

Recognition

Fortune Magazine called her one of four rising stars on its Most Powerful Women list, placing her between the 10 "highest paid" and the "Young and Powerful" categories. In 2005,

The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. Owned by The Times Group, ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961 and it is sold in all major cities in India. As of 2012, it is the world's secon ...

ranked Warrior as the 11th Most Influential Global Indian. In 2001 she was one of six women nationwide selected to receive the "Women Elevating Science and Technology" award from Working Woman Magazine. As of 2014, she is listed as the 71st most powerful woman in the world by ''Forbes''. In 2018 she was also featured among "America's Top 50 Women In Tech" by

. Warrior is featured in the Notable Women in Computing cards.

Board participation

Warrior has been a member of

's board of directors since December 2015. She is also a board member at

. She was a member of the Gap Inc. board from 2013 to 2016 and the

Box A box (plural: boxes) is a container with rigid sides used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides (typically rectangular prisms). Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or v ...

board from 2014 to 2016. Warrior is on the boards of Thorn, the

Joffrey Ballet The Joffrey Ballet is an American dance company and training institution in Chicago, Illinois. The Joffrey regularly performs classical and contemporary ballets during its annual performance season at the Civic Opera House, including its annual ...

, Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago Mayor's Technology Council, and advisory council of Indian Institute of Technology. She was on the

board, the Texas Governor's Council for Digital Economy, the Technology Advisory Council for the FCC, and the Advisory Committee for Computing and Information Science and Engineering of the National Science Foundation (NSF). She is a mentor in the State Department's International Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership. Warrior was on the board of directors for Corning Incorporated from 2005 through 2008.

Personal life

Warrior is married to Mohandas Warrior and has a son.

References

External links

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Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warrior, Padmasree 20th-century American people 20th-century American women 20th-century Indian businesswomen 20th-century Indian businesspeople 20th-century Indian chemists 20th-century Indian engineers 20th-century Indian women scientists 20th-century American women engineers 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesswomen 21st-century Indian businesswomen 21st-century Indian businesspeople 21st-century Indian engineers 21st-century Indian women scientists 21st-century American women engineers 21st-century American engineers American business executives American people of Indian descent American chief technology officers American Hindus American people of Telugu descent Businesspeople from Vijayawada Businesspeople from Andhra Pradesh Cornell University College of Engineering alumni Engineers from Andhra Pradesh Indian chemical engineers Indian emigrants to the United States IIT Delhi alumni Indian women chemists Indian women engineers Living people Motorola employees Scientists from Vijayawada Women chief technology officers Women scientists from Andhra Pradesh Year of birth missing (living people)