Shivon Alice Zilis (born February 8, 1986) is a Canadian venture capitalist who works in the technology and

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

fields.

Early life and education

Shivon Alice Zilis was born in

Markham, Ontario Markham () is a city in the Regional Municipality of York, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately northeast of Downtown Toronto. In the 2021 Census, Markham had a population of 338,503, which ranked it the largest in York Region, fourth largest ...

, Canada on 8 February 1986 to Sharda, a Punjabi Indian, and Richard, a white Canadian. Zilis graduated from Markham's Unionville High School. She graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

in 2008, with degrees in economics and philosophy. At Yale, she played on the ice hockey team

Career

After graduating from Yale, Zilis started her career at IBM in New York, working in financial technologies in developing countries, especially

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. From 2012 to 2018, she was one of the founding investors and partner of Bloomberg Beta, funded by

Bloomberg L.P. Bloomberg L.P. is a privately held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, with Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Zegar, and a ...

, utilizing what she calls "machine intelligence". She was named among LinkedIn's 35 Under 35. In 2015, Zilis was listed on the ''

Forbes 30 Under 30 ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists of people under 30 years old issued annually by ''Forbes'' magazine and some of its regional editions. The American lists recognize 600 business and industry figures, with 30 selected in twenty industries ...

'' list for venture capital. Zilis serves as director of operations and special projects at

Neuralink Neuralink Corporation is a neurotechnology company that develops implantable brain–computer interfaces (BCIs). Founded by Elon Musk and a founding team of seven other scientists and engineers, the company's headquarters is in the Pioneer B ...

and reports directly to

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The ...

. Zilis met Musk through her non-profit work at

OpenAI OpenAI is an artificial intelligence (AI) research laboratory consisting of the for-profit corporation OpenAI LP and its parent company, the non-profit OpenAI Inc. The company conducts research in the field of AI with the stated goal of promo ...

, of which she was a board member until 2023. Although Musk co-founded OpenAI, as of 2019, he is no longer involved in the organization or its board. From 2017 to 2019, she served as a project director for

Tesla, Inc. Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Tesla designs and manufactures electric vehicles (electric cars and electric truck, trucks), battery energy storage from ...

Autopilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of an aircraft, marine craft or spacecraft without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator' ...

product and chip design team.

Personal life

In July 2022, it was revealed through the obtaining of

Travis County Travis County is located in south central Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,290,188. It is the fifth-most populous county in Texas. Its county seat is Austin, the capital of Texas. The county was established in 1840 and is n ...

, Texas court documents that Zilis had twins with

who were born in November 2021. Executives claimed that they were born via

in vitro fertilization In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating an individual's ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) f ...

(IVF). She stated in 2020, that Musk is the person she admires most despite criticism towards him. According to court documents to register the twins' names, Musk and Zilis listed the same address in Austin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zilis, Shivon Living people 1986 births Yale College alumni Yale Bulldogs women's ice hockey players Canadian people of Indian descent Canadian people of Punjabi descent Musk family People from Markham, Ontario IBM Women IBM people Canadian expatriates in the United States 21st-century Canadian businesswomen 21st-century Canadian businesspeople Businesspeople from San Francisco Canadian venture capitalists Women investors Businesspeople from Ontario