About AI2050

Eric Schmidt is an accomplished technologist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He served as Google’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman from 2001-2011 where he pioneered the company’s transformation from a Silicon Valley startup to a global leader in technology. Eric oversaw the company’s technical and business strategies alongside founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Under his leadership, Google dramatically scaled its infrastructure and diversified its product offerings while maintaining a strong culture of innovation.

From 2018-2020, Eric served as the Technical Advisor to Alphabet, the holding company of Google, advising its leaders on technology, business, and policy issues. He was also the Executive Chairman of Alphabet from 2015-2018 and remained as the Chairman of Google until 2015.

Prior to joining Google, Eric was Chairman and CEO of Novell, a software as a service company. He previously spent 14 years at Sun Microsystems, Inc., starting his career as a manager and rising to become their Chief Technology Officer. He also held technical positions at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Bell Laboratories, and Zilog.

Eric has been honored with numerous accolades and supports a variety of esteemed organizations. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a fellow in 2007. He was on the Board of Trustees at Carnegie Mellon University from 2004 to 2006, and at Princeton University from 2007 to 2010. Additionally, since 2008, he has served as a trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and after a 12-year tenure was named an emeritus board member in 2020. Eric was also a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science from 2009 to 2017. He currently serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Broad Institute and is on the board of The Mayo Clinic, as well as Director of Science for America. Since 2022, Eric has served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for Sandbox AQ.

Eric became the Chairman of the Department of Defense’s Innovation Board in 2016 and held the position for four years, during which he was awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service in January 2017 by Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. He was also a member of NASA’s National Space Council User Advisory Group for two years which was chaired by the Vice President. He served as the Chairman of the US National Security Commission for Artificial Intelligence for three years. In 2021, he launched, and currently Chairs, the Special Competitive Studies Project, an initiative that makes recommendations to strengthen America’s long-term global competitiveness for a future where artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies reshape our national security, economy, and society. Eric is also a commissioner on the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB), which was tasked to review how advancements in emerging biotechnology and related technologies will shape current and future activities of the Department of Defense.

Eric contributes much of his time to various programs at MIT. He is an MIT Visiting Innovation Fellow, a member of the Advisory Board for MIT IQ, a member of the MIT Commission on the Work of the Future, a member of the MIT CEO Advisory Board, and a member of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing Advisory Council.

An accomplished author, Eric and Jared Cohen co-wrote The New York Times bestselling book, The New Digital Age: Transforming Nations, Businesses, and Our Lives in 2013. In 2014, Eric published his second New York Times bestseller, How Google Works, which he and Jonathan Rosenberg co-authored with Alan Eagle. In 2019, Eric published his third New York Times bestseller, Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell, co-authored with Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle. In 2021, Eric wrote the WSJ-best selling book The Age of AI: And Our Human Future with Dr. Henry Kissinger and Professor Daniel Huttenlocher.

Inspired to continue their legacy of giving back, Eric and his wife Wendy have founded several philanthropic initiatives under the umbrella of the Schmidt Family Foundations including the Schmidt Ocean Institute, Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation, and the Marine Science and Technology Foundation. In 2017, they co-founded Schmidt Futures, which supports projects at the intersection of talent and technology, centered on specific, finite challenges that are connected to other efforts in the Schmidt philanthropic network. Most recently in 2024, they co-founded Schmidt Sciences, a philanthropic venture to fund unconventional areas of exploration in science and tech.

Eric holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Wendy Schmidt is a philanthropist and investor who has spent nearly two decades creating innovative non-profit organizations to work with communities around the world for clean, renewable energy, resilient food systems, healthy oceans and the protection of human rights. The critical interconnections between human activity, the land we live on and the ocean we depend upon are the central drivers of Wendy’s philanthropic work. Through their philanthropy, Wendy and her husband Eric are working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all.

Wendy is president of the Schmidt Family Foundation, which she and Eric founded in 2006. She leads the foundation’s grant-making and investment programs—the 11th Hour Project, which works to create a just world where all people have access to renewable energy, clean air and water and healthy food, and Schmidt Marine Technology Partners, which supports scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs in developing technologies that restore ocean health.

Wendy also serves as president of Schmidt Ocean Institute, which she and Eric founded in 2009 to advance oceanographic research by offering scientists access to the world’s first year-round philanthropic research vessel in exchange for making their findings publicly available. After operating the ship Falkor for a decade, hosting more than 1,000 scientists, discovering scores of new marine species and underwater formations and mapping more than half a million square miles of the seafloor, Wendy and Eric began developing a larger research vessel, Falkor (too), in late 2021. The new ship, equipped with the latest technology and robotics that will broaden the capacity and capability of conducting science at sea, began expeditions in March 2023.

A competitive sailor, Wendy has extended her oceans-focused work to the sporting world through 11th Hour Racing, an organization she co-founded in 2010 to work with the sailing community and maritime industry to advance sustainable solutions and practices that protect and restore ocean health. Wendy also founded Remain to strengthen the economic, social and environmental vitality of downtown Nantucket and to encourage innovation and resilience across the island. Its Envision Resilience Challenge calls on professionals and students to develop innovative, interdisciplinary solutions for coastal communities facing sea level rise.

In 2024, Eric and Wendy founded Schmidt Sciences, a nonprofit organization working to advance science and technology that accelerates and deepens human understanding of the natural world and develops solutions to global issues.

Most recently, Wendy co-founded Agog: The Immersive Media Institute, a groundbreaking initiative at the intersection of technology, communications and social impact. Agog will help creators and nonprofit leaders harness the power of extended reality (XR) technologies to spur positive social transformation, opening new avenues for empathy, understanding and activism.

A journalist early in her career, Wendy developed a deep appreciation for clear, concise communication that has extended into her philanthropy, as she works to strengthen community-based, environmental, science and investigative journalism. She provided startup funding for media organization Climate Central, and her grantmaking has supported fellowships at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and the Missouri School of Journalism. Recognizing the power of effective storytelling, Wendy has supported a number of documentaries and served as executive producer of the award-winning films “Gather” and “The Human Element.”

Wendy has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley, and she graduated magna cum laude from Smith College with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and anthropology. After working briefly as a journalist, she worked in marketing communications in Silicon Valley, studied design and ran an interior design business for 16 years before turning her focus to philanthropy in 2006.

James is Senior Vice President at Google-Alphabet reporting to the CEO. As President for Research, Technology & Society he focuses on Google and Google DeepMind’s most ambitious foundational and applied innovations in AI, Computing and Science and in areas that have potential for broad beneficial impact on people and society. He also oversees Google Research - pursuing cutting-edge foundational and applied work in ML and Computer Science, Quantum AI, Science and Society – and Google Labs – Google’s home for the latest AI experiments and technology. He is Senior Partner emeritus of McKinsey & Company, and is Chair and director emeritus of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI). At Mckinsey, he advised the chief executives of many of the world’s leading technology companies and he led MGI ’s research on technology, the economy, competitiveness, and other global economy trends.

Appointed by President Obama, he served as Vice Chair of the Global Development Council at the White House (2012-2017), and by Commerce Secretaries to the Digital Economy Board and the National Innovation Board. He serves as Vice Chair of the US National AI Advisory Committee established by Congress to advise the President on AI and the National AI Initiative Office at the White House and also serves on the U.S. Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board. He was appointed by the UN Secretary General to serve as co-Chair on the UN's High-Level Body on AI. He serves on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has served on the boards of the Hewlett and MacArthur Foundations and on various national and international commissions and task-forces related to technology, the economy and society.

He is a Visiting Professor at Oxford’s School of Government and has been a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s Committee on Responsible Computing. He serves on the board of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and the advisory boards of MIT’s College of Computing, Stanford’s Human-centered AI Institute, Harvard’s Hutchins Center, and as co-chair of Stanford Digital Economy Lab. He has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Distinguished Fellow of Stanford’s AI Institute, a Distinguished Fellow in Ethics in AI at Oxford, a Fellow of Balliol College, Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and a life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. A Rhodes Scholar, James has DPhil, MSc with distinction and MA from Oxford in AI and robotics, mathematics, and computer science, a BSc first class in electrical engineering from the University of Zimbabwe.

Mark Greaves is the Executive Director of AI2050. An initiative of Schmidt Sciences, AI2050 supports exceptional people working on key opportunities and hard problems that are critical to get right for society to benefit from AI.

Prior to joining Schmidt Sciences, Mark was a senior leader in AI and data analytics within the National Security Directorate at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where he created and managed large research programs in AI on behalf of the US Government. Prior to this, Mark was Director of Knowledge Systems at Vulcan Inc., the private asset management company for Paul Allen, where he led global research teams in question- answering textbooks, large knowledge graphs, semantic web, and crowdsourcing. Prior to Vulcan, Mark was Director of DARPA’s Joint Logistics Technology Office and Program Manager in DARPA’s Information Exploitation Office. At DARPA, he directed national research programs in semantic web technology, formal ontology specification, logistics and supply chain control technologies, and the application of software agent technology to problems of distributed control of complex systems-of-systems. Mark was awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service for his contributions to US national security while serving at DARPA.

He holds a BA in Cognitive Science from Amherst College, and MS in Computer Science from UCLA, and a PhD in Philosophy from Stanford University.

Olivia Randall is a Senior Associate at Schmidt Sciences where she supports the AI2050 program.

Prior to joining the team at Schmidt Sciences, Olivia worked on the Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Rise initiatives at Schmidt Futures, building entrepreneurial programs for impact-driven founders. Previously, Olivia worked at Ivory Innovations where she helped source and vet candidates for a national prize in housing affordability.

Olivia graduated from the University of Utah with an Honors Bachelors of Science in Finance and a Minor in Urban Ecology.

Maya Moretta is a Program Delivery Associate at Schmidt Sciences. Through her work, she supports program teams and awardees as they progress through the entire award life cycle, from proposal submission to final evaluation.

Prior to joining Schmidt Sciences, Maya developed her passion for progressive and equity-focused grant making while designing and launching a progressive, equity-focused general operating support grant program at Maryland Humanities in Baltimore.

Maya holds a B.A. in History and African-American Studies from Georgetown University, where she focused on the intersections of history, education and social justice. Throughout her time at Georgetown, she was a core member of the GU272 advocacy team which launched an internationally-recognized reparative justice initiative. She also supported the development of Nikole Hannah Jones' 1619 Freedom School, a culturally-sustaining curriculum for an after-school program in Waterloo, Iowa which centered Black History.

Mike Belinsky is a Director at Schmidt Futures, where he supports current programs on strategy and execution and helps design and launch new programs.

Prior to Schmidt Futures, Mike was a principal at The Bridgespan Group, where he led teams that addressed complex strategy and execution challenges for foundations, impact investors, and nonprofits. At Bridgespan, Mike also helped build the impact investing practice.

Mike also co-founded Instiglio, a social enterprise that develops impact bonds and results-based financing programs in low- and middle-income countries. At Instiglio, Mike led the team that designed the first impact bond in India — the Educate Girls Development Impact Bond — which improved primary education outcomes and served as a model for impact bonds in India and beyond. For this work, Mike received the Echoing Green fellowship and the Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurship award.

Mike holds a BA in economics and government from Dartmouth College and an MPP from Harvard Kennedy School, where he was managing editor of the Harvard Kennedy Review. He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and lives with his wife and two children in New York City.