Bret Taylor Explained

Birth Name:Bret Steven Taylor
Birth Place:Oakland, California, U.S.[1]
Education:Stanford University (BS, MS)
Children:3
Occupation:Entrepreneur

Bret Steven Taylor (born 1980) is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur. He is most notable for leading the team that co-created Google Maps and his tenures as the CTO of Facebook (now Meta Platforms), as the chairman of Twitter, Inc.'s board of directors prior to its acquisition by Elon Musk, and as the co-CEO of Salesforce (alongside co-founder Marc Benioff). Taylor was additionally one of the founders of FriendFeed and the creator of Quip. Since 2023, he is chairman of OpenAI and a board member of Shopify.

Early life and education

Taylor was born in Oakland, California, in 1980, primarily growing up in the East Bay. He graduated from Acalanes High School in Lafayette, California, in 1998. He attended Stanford University, where he earned his bachelor's and master's degree in computer science in 2002 and 2003, respectively.[2]

Career

In 2003, Taylor was hired by Google as an associate product manager.[3] He led the team working on features such as Search by Location and Google Local—predecessors to Google Maps.[4] [5] Taylor left Google in June 2007 to join venture capital firm Benchmark Capital as an entrepreneur-in-residence, where he and several other former Google employees founded the social network web site FriendFeed.[6] [7] Taylor was CEO of FriendFeed until August 2009, when the company was acquired by Facebook for an estimated $50 million.[8] The acquisition led to Facebook adopting the "Like" button from FriendFeed.[9] After the acquisition, Taylor joined Facebook and became CTO in 2010.[10]

In 2012, Taylor left Facebook to found Quip, a competitor to Google Docs.[11] Quip was acquired by Salesforce in 2016. That year, Twitter, Inc. announced that Taylor was appointed to their board of directors.[12] In 2021, he became chairman of Twitter. He remained in the position until the entire board of directors was dissolved following the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk in October 2022.[13] [14]

In 2017, Taylor was named chief product officer at Salesforce. He was named president and chief operating officer at Salesforce two years later.[15] As COO, Taylor led Salesforce's acquisition of Slack Technologies, which closed in 2021.[16] He also led the creation of a system dubbed Customer 360 at Salesforce[17] and started an associate product manager program at the company.[11] In November 2021, Taylor was named vice chair and co-CEO at Salesforce. On November 30, 2022, it was announced that Taylor would be stepping down as co-CEO and vice chair at Salesforce at the end of January 2023.[18] [19] In February 2023, he co-founded an enterprise-focused artificial intelligence (AI) startup, Sierra.[20] [21]

In November 2023, Taylor replaced Greg Brockman as the chairman of OpenAI when Sam Altman was briefly ousted and reinstated as CEO of the company by its board members.[22] [23] He also serves on the board of Shopify since 2023.[24] [25]

Personal life

He married Karen Padham in 2006, whom he met while working at Google. The couple has three children. He is a fan of Stanford football. His father, mother, and older sister also attended Stanford.[26]

Notes and References

  1. News: At Twitter and Salesforce, Bret Taylor Steps Into the Limelight. Wall Street Journal . 18 December 2021 . 2022-03-24 . Tilley . Aaron . Wells . Georgia .
  2. Web site: Thomas . Owen . 2020-12-20 . Salesforce's Marc Benioff is betting $28 billion on Bret Taylor. So who is he? . 2022-03-24 . San Francisco Chronicle . en-US.
  3. Web site: Levy . Ari . 2018-09-22 . How Bret Taylor, a former Facebook and Google engineer, earned Marc Benioff's trust to become one of the most important execs at Salesforce . 2022-03-24 . CNBC . en.
  4. Web site: Take On Your Competition With These Lessons From Google Maps . 2016-01-22 . Fast Company.
  5. Web site: Gannes . Liz . 2015-02-08 . Ten Years of Google Maps, From Slashdot to Ground Truth . Vox.
  6. Web site: Two top Google engineers leave — to Benchmark Capital . . 2007-06-20 . 2009-09-19.
  7. News: Service Helps Friends Share Their Online Discoveries . John . Markoff . 2007-10-01 . . 2009-09-19.
  8. News: Facebook Acquires Start-Up FriendFeed . Jessica Lessin . Jessica E. . Vascellaro . 2009-08-11 . . 2009-09-19.
  9. News: Tilley . Aaron . Wells . Georgia . 2021-12-18 . At Twitter and Salesforce, Bret Taylor Steps Into the Limelight . en-US . Wall Street Journal . 2022-03-24 . 0099-9660.
  10. Web site: McCarthy . Caroline . 2010-06-02 . Facebook promotes Bret Taylor to CTO . https://web.archive.org/web/20110617023542/http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20006634-36.html . 2011-06-17 . 2010-06-02 . CNET News.
  11. Web site: Stewart . Paayal Zaveri, Ashley . Bret Taylor is officially Salesforce's co-CEO with Marc Benioff, ending over a year of speculation. Over a dozen insiders explain his meteoric rise to the top. . 2022-03-24 . Business Insider . en-US.
  12. Web site: Twitter adds Bret Taylor, former CTO at Facebook, to its board . 2016-07-05 . MarketWatch.
  13. Web site: Here are the executives that have exited Twitter . 2022-10-28 . Melillo . Gianna . The Hill.
  14. Web site: Conger . Kate . How Twitter Will Change as a Private Company . October 28, 2022 . . https://web.archive.org/web/20221028102502/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/28/technology/twitter-changes.html . October 28, 2022 . live.
  15. Web site: Salesforce promotes Bret Taylor to president and COO . 2022-03-24 . TechCrunch . 13 December 2019 . en-US .
  16. Web site: Bret Taylor Faces His Biggest Test at Salesforce . 2022-03-24 . The Information.
  17. News: 2021-03-09 . Exclusive: Salesforce's Taylor emerges as CEO candidate - sources . en . Reuters . 2022-03-24.
  18. News: 2022-11-30 . Bret Taylor steps down as co-CEO of Salesforce, Marc Benioff stays on as CEO - sources . en . CNBC . 2022-11-30.
  19. News: Duffy . Clare . 2022-11-30 . Salesforce Co-CEO Bret Taylor steps down, leaving Marc Benioff alone at the top . CNN.
  20. News: Bobrowsky . Meghan . February 8, 2023 . Bret Taylor, Former Co-CEO of Salesforce, to Create AI Startup With Google Veteran . The Wall Street Journal.
  21. News: Roof . Katie . January 26, 2024 . Ex-Salesforce Co-CEO to Win Funding for AI Startup at Near-$1 Billion Value, Sources Say . Bloomberg News.
  22. Web site: Teo . Kai Xiang . Larry Summers and Bret Taylor are joining OpenAI's board as Sam Altman returns . 2024-01-22 . Business Insider . en-US.
  23. OpenAI . 1727206187077370115 . We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo. We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this.
  24. News: Gehan . Ann . May 26, 2023 . Shopify Nominates Bret Taylor For Board Seat . The Information.
  25. News: Who are OpenAI's new board members as Sam Altman returns? . November 23, 2023 . Reuters.
  26. News: Thomas . By Owen . 5 more things you should know about Bret Taylor . 2024-02-25 . San Francisco Chronicle . en.