Joanna Shields, Baroness Shields

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For the co-founder of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, see Joanna Mary Berry Shields.

The Right Honourable
The Baroness Shields
OBE
Official portrait, 2024
Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Internet Crime and Harms
In office
December 2016 – February 2018
Prime MinisterTheresa May
Minister for Internet Safety and Security
In office
December 2016 – June 2017
Prime MinisterTheresa May
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Internet Safety and Security at the Home Office
In office
December 2015 – June 2017
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron
Theresa May
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Internet Safety and Security at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
In office
May 2015 – December 2016
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron
Theresa May
Prime Minister’s Adviser on the Digital Economy
In office
June 2014 – May 2015
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Assumed office
16 September 2014
Life peerage
Personal details
Born (1962-07-12) 12 July 1962 (age 61)
St. Marys, Pennsylvania, U.S.
NationalityBritish & American
Political partyConservative
SpouseAndy Stevenson
Children1
Residence(s)London, UK
Alma materThe Pennsylvania State University 1984, Bachelor of Science.
The George Washington University 1987, Master of Business Administration; and, Doctorate in Public Service, Honoris Causa, May 2016
OccupationTechnology industry executive, Former UK Minister for Internet Safety & Security, and Founder of www.weprotect.org
Known forDigital industry pioneer, entrepreneur and tech industry executive
Websitehttp://www.joannashields.com [1]

Joanna Shields, Baroness Shields, OBE (born 12 July 1962) is a British-American businesswoman and politician. Shields was made a Life Peer in the House of Lords in 2014, and later served as Minister for Internet Safety and Security under David Cameron and Theresa May. She had also served as Advisor on the Digital Economy to David Cameron.

Early life[edit]

Shields was born in 1962 in St. Marys, Pennsylvania, and was the second of five children.[1]

Career history[edit]

Shields moved to Silicon Valley in 1989, and joined Electronics for Imaging as an early employee. In 1997 Shields became CEO of Veon, an interactive video technology company whose intellectual property included patents for adding interactive links to video streams that became part of the MPEG4 streaming video standard. Philips acquired Veon in 2000. After closing the Veon transaction, Shields was hired by the company that invented streaming audio and video, RealNetworks, to run its businesses outside the United States.[2]

Shields briefly joined former Efi CEO and colleague, Dan Avida, to build the business of a storage encryption company he founded called Decru, where she played an instrumental role in forming a partnership with Network Appliance, the company that eventually acquired Decru for $272m.[3]

Shields then became a managing director for Google Europe, Middle East and Africa where she was responsible for developing the company's advertising syndication business, AdSense, and for the acquisition of content and partnerships for such products such as Google Mail, Video (before the YouTube acquisition), Maps, Local, News and Books.

In late 2006 Shields was approached by Benchmark Capital to step in as CEO of the social networking startup Bebo.[4] At Bebo, Shields introduced Open Media, opening Bebo's platform for media companies to reach its 50M user base and enabling media owners to monetise their content,[5] and Bebo Originals, a series of original online shows.[6] The first Bebo Original KateModern was viewed 85M times, was nominated for two BAFTA awards[7] and won the Broadcasting Press Guild Innovation Award for Outstanding Development in Broadcasting.[8]

After engineering Bebo's acquisition for $850m by Aol in May 2008, Shields briefly relocated to New York City to head Aol's newly created People Networks, overseeing the company's social and communications assets including AIM, Aol Instant Messenger and ICQ. Bebo's development continued under Shields with the release of Timeline in 2009, the first social network to organise and represent life events in a linear way.[9] Timeline eventually became standard on social networks when Facebook released the feature in 2012.[10]

In 2009 Shields was recruited by former Google colleague Sheryl Sandberg to run Facebook in Europe, Middle East & Africa as VP & managing director.[11] In her role she built EMEA into the company's largest region, focusing on making Facebook the world's most valuable marketing, communications and customer services platform for brands and leveraging Facebook's Open Graph as a growth engine for some of Europe's hottest startups and established businesses. She also presided over the growth of international presence to over one billion users.[12]

In May 2018, Shields was announced as the Group CEO of BenevolentAI, a London-based medical startup.[13][14] She stepped down from that role in September 2023.[15]

Industry recognition[edit]

Shields was ranked No. 1 on the Wired 100 in 2011[16] and No. 6 in the MediaGuardian 100 in 2012.[17] In February 2013 she was named to the list of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.[18] In July 2013 Computer Weekly named Shields the Most Influential Woman in UK IT.[19] In July 2013 she received the British Interactive Media Association's Lifetime Achievement Award.[20]

Government work[edit]

In October 2012 Shields was named the UK's Ambassador for Digital Industries.[21] She was Chair and CEO of Tech City from January 2013 to May 2015.[22] She helped create Future Fifty, a programme whicxh was launched by the Chancellor George Osborne in April 2013.[23]

Government honours[edit]

Shields was appointed OBE in the 2014 New Year Honours List for "services to digital industries and voluntary service to young people".[24] After being nominated as a working peeress in August 2014,[25] Shields was elevated to the peerage on 16 September 2014 taking the title Baroness Shields, of Maida Vale in the City of Westminster.[26]

Personal life[edit]

She graduated as BS from Penn State University, where she was a member of Chi Omega sorority,[27] and did her post-grad studies as MBA from George Washington University. Shields received a Doctorate in Public Service, Honoris Causa, from George Washington University May 2016.[citation needed]. Shields is married to Andy Stevenson, from the Racing Point Force India Formula One team.[28]

Honours and awards[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ De Vita, Emma (1 May 2008). "The MT Interview: Joanna Shields". Management Today. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
  2. ^ "Joanna Shields". Archived from the original on 14 December 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. ^ "News Archives | NetApp Newsroom". NetApp Newsroom. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  4. ^ Sweney, Mark (15 January 2007). "Bebo poaches Google's Shields". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  5. ^ Schroeder, Stan (13 November 2007). "Bebo Open Media: Bebo Makes Its Platform Move". Mashable. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  6. ^ "MadCat Media Browser". getmadcat.com. Archived from the original on 13 December 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  7. ^ "Television Craft Nominations". www.bafta.org. 26 March 2008. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  8. ^ "Innovation Award". Broadcasting Press Guild. 18 February 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  9. ^ theartofsocialmedia (10 January 2012). "The New Facebook Timeline (or the old Bebo timeline??) examples". theartofsocialmedia. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  10. ^ "Bebo to add a "timeline" — and data from Facebook and MySpace?". VentureBeat. 4 February 2009. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  11. ^ "Facebook Lands Former Bebo CEO (And ex-Googler) Joanna Shields". AllThingsD. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  12. ^ "Deloitte says Facebook is worth £12.7bn to EU economy". Econsultancy. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  13. ^ BenevolentAI. "BenevolentAI | BenevolentAI appoints Joanna Shields as group CEO". benevolent.ai. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  14. ^ Shead, Sam. "BenevolentAI Makes Joanna Shields New CEO". Forbes. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
  15. ^ Shields, Joanna. "Press Release". Benevolent AI. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  16. ^ WIRED. "2nd annual Wired 100: Positions 10-1". WIRED UK. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  17. ^ "6. Joanna Shields". The Guardian. 16 September 2012. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  18. ^ "Woman's Hour - The Power List 2013 - BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  19. ^ "The 25 most influential women in UK IT 2013". ComputerWeekly. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  20. ^ "Sample Item". BIMA. Archived from the original on 5 August 2013. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  21. ^ "Joanna Shields to lead Tech City Investment Organisation - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  22. ^ Burgess, Kate (13 February 2013). "LSE aims new market at high-growth SMEs". Financial Times. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  23. ^ "Future Fifty aims to drive tech growth". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  24. ^ "Page 14 | Supplement 60728, 31 December 2013 | London Gazette | the Gazette".
  25. ^ Fleisher, Lisa (8 August 2014). "Q&A With Joanna Shields OBE, the U.K.'s First Lady of Tech". WSJ. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  26. ^ "Page 18358 | Issue 60994, 22 September 2014 | London Gazette | the Gazette".
  27. ^ "Joanna Shields: Baroness and Business Woman". Chi Omega. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  28. ^ "Joanna Shields: The Super Woman of Tech City". standard.co.uk. 8 November 2013. Retrieved 28 January 2024.
  29. ^ www.burkespeerage.com. www.burkespeerage.com. Retrieved on 4 November 2015.[full citation needed]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joanna Shields.
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