Joanna Shields

Baroness Joanna Shields OBE is a pioneering international technology executive, start-up CEO, and life peer in the UK House of Lords, with over three decades of experience driving innovation and advocating for the responsible development of technology across industry, government, and civil society.

Shields is passionate about creating technology that benefits humanity. She is the Founder and CEO of Precognition, a startup that empowers leaders in this AI-centric era to anticipate the future and build solutions for a better world. Previously, as Chief Executive of BenevolentAI, she grew the company from a startup to a publicly listed, clinical-stage drug discovery company with an industry-leading AI discovery platform, a robust drug pipeline, and enduring and successful commercial collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies.

Shields expanded global operations for tech giants Google and Facebook in their early years, building product and sales teams responsible for exponential growth in revenues and users. As President and CEO of Bebo, she successfully steered its $850M acquisition by AoL Time Warner and pioneered groundbreaking innovations in online video content years before Netflix. As a start-up CEO, she built Veon into a leader in interactive video streaming and led the international operations at RealNetworks, the inventor of audio and video streaming.

Shields served the UK Government as Britain’s first-ever Minister for Internet Safety and Security, Digital Economy Advisor to the Prime Minister, and UK Ambassador for Digital Industries. As a Minister, she founded the WeProtect Global Alliance, representing over 100 countries committed to combating online child sexual abuse. The uniting theme of her work today is advancing responsible technology development and human-centric AI for the benefit of all in society. She was twice elected Co-Chair of the Global Partnership on AI from 2020-22.

She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of AI, the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity, the Global Tech Thinkers Group, and the Council on Foreign Relations.