Clara Shih is a visionary entrepreneur and technology leader in artificial intelligence. She is founder of New Work Foundation, an independent media, data, and technology platform for early-career workers navigating AI labor market disruption. Clara is also Senior Advisor and Founder of Business AI at Meta, providing AI agents for 200M businesses on WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram.
Previously, Clara was CEO of Salesforce AI, where she led the development, launch, and monetization of Agentforce, and CEO of Salesforce Service Cloud, which she grew into the company’s largest product line at $10B in annual revenue.
From 2009-2020, Clara was founder, CEO, and Chair of Hearsay Systems, a global AI software company backed by Sequoia and NEA.
Clara serves on the board of directors of HubSpot (NYSE:HUBS) and previously served on the Starbucks board. She is an advisor and angel investor in AI startups including Perplexity, Braintrust, and Qodo, and has been named to the TIME100 AI, Fast Company Most Creative People, CNBC 50 Disruptors, and World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders.
Clara is also the author of two books exploring the impact of social technologies on business: The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Market, Sell, and Innovate and The Social Business Imperative: Adapting Your Business Model to the Always-Connected Customer.
Clara holds undergraduate and Master’s degrees in computer science from Stanford and also an M.S. in technology and society from Oxford University, where she studied as a U.S. Marshall Scholar.
