Mawakana, Tekedra
1971-present · Contribution: 2017-present
Co-CEO of Waymo, Alphabet's autonomous-driving technology company, since April 2021, overseeing business strategy and commercial rollout; among the few Black women leading a major U.S. technology company
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Impact on the world
Joining Waymo in 2017 as vice president of public policy and government affairs after prior legal and policy roles at eBay, Yahoo, AOL, and Startec, Mawakana was promoted to chief operating officer in 2019, then named co-CEO in April 2021 alongside technical co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov — an unusual power-sharing structure in which she leads business, commercialization, and policy while Dolgov leads technology. Under her leadership Waymo has expanded robotaxi service across multiple U.S. cities, and she has cited data showing a 13-times reduction in serious injury-causing crashes compared to human drivers as central to earning public trust in the technology. TIME named her to its 2024 list of the 100 most influential people in AI, and she has been recognized on Savoy Magazine's list of Most Influential Black Corporate Directors and Automotive News' 100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry.
Life & background
Born in 1971 in Mississippi and raised across Georgia, Texas, and Virginia, Mawakana earned a BA with honors in political science from Trinity Washington University in 1993 and a JD from Columbia Law School, beginning her career as an attorney at the Washington, D.C. firm Steptoe & Johnson. She went on to lead global policy and government-relations teams across five continents at Startec Global Communications, AOL, Yahoo! — where she directed the company's response to NSA surveillance revelations following Edward Snowden's disclosures — and eBay, before joining Waymo in 2017. She serves on the boards of Intuit, Boom Supersonic, and the Consumer Technology Association, and is an angel investor with Operator Collective, backing startups led by women and people of color.
Sources
- Waymo; Forbes; Automotive News
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