Tekedra Mawakana facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tekedra Mawakana
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Mawakana in 2024
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Mississippi, US
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| Title | Co-CEO of Waymo |
Tekedra Mawakana is an American businesswoman and lawyer. She is currently the co-chief executive officer (co-CEO) of Waymo. Waymo is a company that develops self-driving car technology. Before becoming co-CEO, she was the company's chief operating officer. She has also worked at well-known companies like AOL, Yahoo!, and eBay. Tekedra Mawakana has also served on the boards of several important organizations, including the Consumer Technology Association and Intuit.
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Tekedra Mawakana's Early Life and Schooling
Tekedra Mawakana was born in Mississippi, a state in the US. As she grew up, she lived in other states too, like Georgia, Texas, and Virginia.
She went to Trinity Washington University and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1993. After that, she studied law at Columbia Law School. There, she earned her Juris Doctor degree, which is a law degree.
Tekedra Mawakana's Career Journey
Tekedra Mawakana started her career as a lawyer at Steptoe & Johnson. This is a large law firm in Washington, D.C. She focused on intellectual property and telecommunication law. Intellectual property deals with things like inventions and creative works. Telecommunication is about sending information over distances, like phone calls or internet data.
After that, she worked at a telecommunications company called Startec Global Communications. She then moved to policy roles at AOL and Yahoo!. She worked at AOL for about twelve years. In 2013, she became Yahoo!'s deputy general counsel. In this role, she led the Washington, D.C. office. She also worked to fight against mass surveillance, which is when governments watch many people's activities. In 2016, she became the head of global government relations for eBay for about 14 months.
Joining Waymo and Leading the Company
Mawakana joined Waymo in 2017. She started as the vice president of public policy and government affairs. Her main goal was to help expand the testing of autonomous driving technology. She also worked on rules and competition with regular car makers.
In 2019, she was promoted to chief operating officer. In this job, she oversaw many parts of the company. This included how Waymo talks to the public and markets its products. It also included business development, operations, and public relations.
Since April 2021, Tekedra Mawakana has been the co-chief executive officer (CEO) of Waymo. She focuses on the business side of the company. The other co-CEO, Dmitri Dolgov, focuses on the technology. They work closely together and have achieved many important things for Waymo. She is also the second African American woman to lead a self-driving technology company.
Board Roles and Awards
Tekedra Mawakana is on the board of industry leaders for the Consumer Technology Association. She is also on the advisory council for Boom Supersonic, a company working on super-fast airplanes. She is also on the board of directors for Intuit, a software company.
She is also on the advisory board of Operator Collective, an investment company. She is also on the board of Saving Promise, a group that works to prevent domestic violence. She has also been the chair of the Internet Association and on the board of the Global Network Initiative.
In 2015, Washingtonian magazine named her one of the "100 Top Tech Leaders." They recognized her work at Yahoo! to protect user privacy. In 2020, Automotive News included her in their list of "100 leading women" in the North American automotive industry. This was for her important work at Waymo.
Tekedra Mawakana's Personal Life
Tekedra Mawakana lives in the San Francisco Bay Area in California.
See also
- List of Columbia Law School alumni
