Clara Shih
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Clara Chung-wai Shih (born January 11, 1982) is an American businesswoman. She is the CEO and co-founder of Hearsay Social.


Early life and education

Shih was born in
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
. Her father, a math professor in Hong Kong, later became an electrical engineer in the United States at Argonne National Laboratory. Her mother was an art and special-education teacher. Shih and her family emigrated to Arlington Heights, Illinois when she was 4. In elementary school, she was initially placed in special classes for kids with speech impediments because the school did not have a program in English as a second language. In eighth grade, she scored a 1420 on the
SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Schol ...
out of 1600. Shih attended
Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, or IMSA, is a three-year residential public secondary education institution in Aurora, Illinois, United States, with an enrollment of approximately 650 students. Enrollment is generally offered to inc ...
, where she participated in the women's varsity tennis team, orchestra, the student newspaper, the debate team, and the
Mu Alpha Theta Mu Alpha Theta () is the United States mathematics honor society for high school and two-year college students. In June 2015, it served over 108,000 student members in over 2,200 chapters in the United States and in 20 foreign countries. Its mai ...
Mathematics Honor Society. She gave English lessons to immigrants. At 15, she helped develop materials in K-12 physics education at
Fermilab Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located just outside Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics. Since 2007, Fermilab has been opera ...
. Shih was named the
Presidential Scholar The United States Presidential Scholars Program is a program of the United States Department of Education. It is described as "one of the Nation's highest honors for students" in the United States of America and the globe. The program was estab ...
and graduated in 2000. Shih attended Stanford University, and co-founded the Stanford engineering public service center. She was the president of the campus chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, officer in the Stanford Society of Women Engineers, and was elected to Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society. In addition to her extracurricular activities, Shih founded Camp Amelia Technology Literacy Group, a nonprofit organization that creates software aimed at improving basic education in underserved communities in the United States and developing countries. She was named a Microsoft Women's Scholar and became an intern at
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
, where she developed the RSS news aggregator for
Outlook Outlook or The Outlook may refer to: Computing * Microsoft Outlook, an e-mail and personal information management software product from Microsoft * Outlook.com, a web mail service from Microsoft * Outlook on the web, a suite of web applications ...
. In her spare time, Shih volunteered in East Palo Alto, California and taught low-income elementary students to become interested in math, science and technology. She was also named a Mayfield Fellow in her senior year, a Merage Foundation for the American Dream Fellow, a Google Anita Borg Scholar, a Microsoft Women's Scholar, and a Society of Women Engineers Scholar. In 2002, Shih did field research for her honors thesis while attending
Beijing Foreign Studies University Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU; ), is a public university in Beijing, China. BFSU boasts the oldest language programs in China offering the largest number of foreign language majors on different educational levels. Located in Haidia ...
. Shih majored in economics and computer science; she graduated with honors with a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in computer science from Stanford in 2005. She was an intern at
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
. In 2005, Shih was awarded the
Marshall Scholarship The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is widely considered one of the most prestigious sc ...
and attended
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
. She received a master's degree in Internet studies from the University of Oxford Internet Institute.


Career

After graduating from Oxford, Shih stayed in England and worked in corporate strategy at
Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
. Shih joined
Salesforce.com Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, a ...
in 2006 as a founding product marketer on the AppExchange. As a side project, she built a business application on Facebook, known as "Faceforce". The application turned out to be successful, and Shih recruited her old classmate, Steve Garrity, from Microsoft to develop Hearsay Social. Shih has served as the
chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...
and co-founder of Hearsay Social since 2009. In December 2011, she was also elected to the Starbucks board of directors, replacing
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...
Sheryl Sandberg Sheryl Kara Sandberg (born August 28, 1969) is an American business executive, billionaire, and philanthropist. Sandberg served as chief operating officer (COO) of Meta Platforms, a position from which she stepped down in August 2022. She is al ...
. Shih has received several awards for her achievements, including recognition as a Young Global Leader by the
World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...
, the Fortune 40 Under 40 (2012), and the
Ad Age ''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in mul ...
40 Under 40 (2012). In February 2021, after an 11-year hiatus, Shih rejoined
Salesforce Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, a ...
.com, the software-as-a-service customer relationship management company, as the company's CEO of Service Cloud CRM software business. In this role, Shih replaces Bill Patterson, who moved on to be the general manager of Salesforce's overall CRM software business.


Personal life

Shih is married to health-tech entrepreneur Daniel Chao, and they live in San Francisco, California.


Published works

* *


References


External links


The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff

Stanford Engineering Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shih, Clara 1982 births Living people American technology chief executives Fortune (magazine) people Stanford University alumni Marshall Scholars Alumni of the University of Oxford American women company founders American company founders American people of Hong Kong descent American women chief executives Directors of Starbucks Hong Kong emigrants to the United States People from Arlington Heights, Illinois American corporate directors Women corporate directors Google employees Microsoft employees Writers from San Francisco Writers from Chicago 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century Chinese businesswomen 21st-century Chinese businesspeople American women engineers 21st-century American businesswomen