STACY BROWN-PHILPOT

CEO, TASKRABBIT

A rare example of a black female success in tech, an industry with stunningly low representation of African Americans and women, no less black women, Brown-Philpot made a name for herself at Google, starting in 2003. While there, Sheryl Sandberg spotted her talent and she went from managing a 14-person team to 200 people, overnight. More importantly for her fellow African American colleagues, she founded the Black Googlers Network, an employee resource group, and became a visible source of inspiration, especially to other black women in tech. She told The New York Times her motives were selfish. “There just weren’t enough black people at Google, and I just wanted to get more,” she said. The Detroit native then left Silicon Valley for Hyderabad, India, consciously delaying her plans to start a family with her husband to head Google’s online sales and operations. After almost a decade at Google, she joined TaskRabbit as COO, and was promoted to CEO in 2016. A year later, she sold the company—which lets people hire freelancers for odd jobs—to Swedish furniture retailer Ikea.

BACK TO 50 MOST IMPACTFUL WOMEN LISTING