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Risk & Resilience Values & Purpose

Transformative Technology

Tekedra Mawakana

03.21.23

Waymo CEO, Tekedra Mawakana, began her career as an attorney at an international law firm based in Washington, D.C. So why did she pivot from a background in law into the world of tech? Tekedra tells us she’s always sought to help people and she wanted to explore how technology could improve lives.

Transformative Technology

Summary:

Waymo CEO, Tekedra Mawakana, began her career as an attorney at an international law firm based in Washington, D.C. So why did she pivot from a background in law into the world of tech? Tekedra tells us she’s always sought to help people and she wanted to explore how technology could improve lives.

Thuy

Let me talk a little bit about your background to start up with. You have a bachelor’s degree from Trinity Washington University in political science and economics, as well as a law degree from Columbia. What made you get into tech with that kind of background?
Tekedra_Mawakana

Tekedra Mawakana

So, when I graduated law school, I was very focused on helping people. I thought I would be an employment lawyer, and I quickly took an assignment related to satellites, and what I realized was technology could actually be quite transformative in people’s lives.

And so, the common thread, although my career has taken many turns, really has been exploring how technology could be used at scale to make people 's lives better. And so, obviously, Waymo is kind of the pinnacle opportunity to think about could roads have been made safer? Could human’s lives be improved? Could my commute to my office be more productive if technology was deployed to do so?

And so I really think the opportunities are endless, and I also think the opportunity to think carefully about how technology is deployed responsibly to improve human lives is something I’m really motivated by.
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