Clara Shih

Clara Chung-wai Shih (born January 11, 1982) is an American businesswoman. She is the chairperson and former CEO of Hearsay Social, the digital software company she co-founded in 2009. Since November 2024, Shih leads the Business AI group at Meta Platforms.

Early life and education Shih was born in Hong Kong. Her father, a math professor in Hong Kong, later became an electrical engineer in the United States. Her mother was an artist who became a bilingual and special-education teacher after the family immigrated to the U.S. Shih and her family emigrated to Akron, Ohio, when she was 4. In elementary school, she was initially placed in special classes for kids with speech impediments because the school did not have a program in English as a second language.

Shih attended Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, where she participated in the women's varsity tennis team, orchestra, the student newspaper, the debate team, and the Mu Alpha Theta Mathematics Honor Society. She volunteered as an English tutor for immigrant children. At 15, she helped develop materials in K-12 physics education at Fermilab. and graduated in 2000.

Shih attended Stanford University, and co-founded the Stanford engineering public service center. She was the president of the campus chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, In addition to her extracurricular activities, Shih founded Camp Amelia Technology Literacy Group, a nonprofit organization that creates software aimed at improving basic education in underserved communities in the United States and developing countries.

Shih has received several awards for her achievements, including recognition as one of the most impactful Asian by Gold House (2024), a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, the Fortune 40 Under 40 (2012), and the Ad Age 40 Under 40 (2012).

In February 2021, after an 11-year hiatus, Shih rejoined Salesforce.com, the software-as-a-service customer relationship management company, as the company's CEO of Service Cloud CRM software business. In this role, Shih replaced Bill Patterson, who moved on to be the general manager of Salesforce's overall CRM software business. Shih was then appointed as CEO of Salesforce AI in May 2023. Shih joined the board of HubSpot in November 2025.

Personal life Shih is married to health technology entrepreneur Daniel Chao. They live in San Francisco, California.

Published works