Ms. Clara Shih is CEO and Founder of Hearsay Social and a pioneer in the social media industry. Hearsay Social is the leading social sales and marketing platform, empowering the world’s largest companies to build stronger customer relationships, grow revenue, and bolster their brands across social networks. In 2007, Clara developed the first social business application, called Faceforce, and subsequently authored the New York Times-featured bestseller, The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Market, Sell and Innovate, now used as a marketing textbook at Harvard Business School. Clara has been named one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, Fast Company’s Most Influential People in Technology, and one of BusinessWeek’s Top Young Entrepreneurs.
Clara is a member of the Starbucks Board of Directors and previously served in a variety of technical, product, and marketing roles at Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce.com. She graduated #1 in Computer Science at Stanford University, where she also received an MS in Computer Science – User Experience and Design. Clara also holds an MS in Internet Studies from Oxford University, where she studied as a U.S. Marshall Scholar.