{"id":24365,"date":"2024-05-14T12:14:41","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T12:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/?page_id=24365"},"modified":"2024-07-29T14:54:32","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T14:54:32","slug":"excellence-hall-of-fame-clara-shih","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/home\/excellence-hall-of-fame\/excellence-hall-of-fame-clara-shih\/","title":{"rendered":"Excellence Hall of Fame \u2013 Clara Shih"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Excellence Hall of Fame\n<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Clara Shih\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Clara\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Nominated by<\/strong>:\u00a0Elieen McDonnell<\/p><\/div><\/div>

Seconded by<\/strong>:\u00a0Matt Fisher\u00a0and\u00a0David Cullen<\/p><\/div><\/div>

\u201cIt was my tremendous honor to have nominated Clara to the Excellence Hall of Fame. Clara has revolutionized the advisor and client experience for over 150,000 financial advisors around the globe. Her ability to leverage technology to advance human connections which facilitates financial decision making is unmatched. Clara has been the driving force to modernize a business model which had been in place for close to two centuries.<\/p>

I\u2019m privileged to call Clara my friend. I\u2019m most proud to witness her ability to balance the roles of savvy business leader with that of a loving daughter, spouse and mother. Congratulations Clara on this awesome recognition of your many accomplishments.\u201d
Eileen McDonnell<\/strong>\u00a0Chief Executive & Chairman of Penn Mutual<\/p>

\u201cFrom first meeting her in college, Clara has always pursued excellence in everything she does, from academics to her work with Google & Salesforce, starting and building Hearsay, and her board, campaign and non-profit service. Not only does she push those around to her to continually improve in all aspects of their lives, she holds herself to the same (or higher) exacting standards. She\u2019s absolutely relentless in her quest for both progress and excellence.\u201d
Steve Garrity<\/strong>\u00a0COO Hearsay Systems<\/p><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Bio<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Clara, who was born in Hong Kong, moved to the United States with her family when she was four and grew up in Chicago. Her parents encountered the many challenges of immigrants, trying to understand the tacit rules of a new culture. Her father, who had been a mathematics professor in Hong Kong, changed career to work as an electrical engineer and her mother, who had been an art teacher, trained to become a special-education teacher. The immigrant experience taught Clara the importance of hard work and the value of being entrepreneurial. She learnt from a young age how to be resilient and to turn being different from those around her into an opportunity to introduce the diversity of thought.<\/p>

Attending Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy High School, Clara says \u201cshowed me that anything is possible and that you\u2019re never too young to think big.\u201d She became captain of the women\u2019s varsity tennis team, concert mistress of the orchestra, editor of the student newspaper, captain of the debate team, and a member of Mu Alpha Theta Mathematics Honor Society. She also applied what she had learned as an immigrant and, having learned English as a second language, now gave English lessons to other immigrants.<\/p>

Aged 15, Clara got a job working as a computer programmer at Fermilab, United States\u2019 premier particle physics laboratory while still in high school. In 2000, she graduated from High School and was named a Presidential Scholar, an honor reserved for the most distinguished students graduating from high school.<\/p>

After high school, Clara moved to California to study economics and computer science at Stanford University. While there, she interned at Microsoft, where she developed the news aggregator for Microsoft Outlook and was named a \u2018Microsoft Women\u2019s Scholar\u2019.<\/p>

In 2002, she returned to China to conduct field research for her thesis and, during her time there, attended Beijing Foreign Studies University. While at Stanford, Clara co-founded the Stanford Engineering Public Service Centre, was the president of the campus chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, served as an officer of the Stanford Society of Women Engineers, was named a Society of Women Engineers Scholar, and was elected to Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society.<\/p>

Never losing sight of the challenges of being in a minority, in her spare time, Clara volunteered as a mathematics and science teacher for elementary students from families with low-income in East Palo Alto, a part of the Bay Area which is home to a large number of people who are ethnic minorities. However, her focus was not just on local minorities. In 2003, she founded Camp Amelia Technology Literacy Group, a student-run international non-profit organization dedicated to providing free educational software to improve basic education in under-served communities. Camp Amelia had volunteers from such colleges as Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth and Duke and partnerships with both the Ghanaian Ministry of Education and the United Arab Emirates\u2019 Ministry of Education as well as UNESCO.<\/p>

In 2004, Clara was one of just eight people selected by Google as an Anita Borg Scholar (now called a \u201cWomen Techmakers Scholar\u201d), in the inaugural year of the scholarship which is awarded to women studying computer science, computer engineering \u2013 or a closely related technical field \u2013 who maintain a strong academic record. She was also named a Mayfield Fellow in her senior year at Stanford, admitting her to a program designed to give students the opportunity to develop the knowledge and leadership skills needed to start and grow technology companies, while working as an intern in a Silicon Valley start-up.<\/p>

Clara earned her Bachelor\u2019s Degree in Economics and Computer Science from Stanford \u2013 graduating 1st in her class \u2013 in 2005, and also earned a Master\u2019s in Computer Science under a \u201ccoterminal degree program\u201d that allows select students to study for both degrees in parallel.<\/p>

She was awarded Marshall Scholarships by the British government to study in the UK following her study at Stanford and enrolled in the University of Oxford. Clara earned her second Master\u2019s degree, an MSc. in Internet Studies from the Oxford Internet Institute in 2006. While studying at Oxford, Clara also worked in Corporate Strategy and Business Operations for Google.<\/p>

In 2006, after leaving Google, Clara was asked to join Salesforce.com and agreed to do so as a Product Director of AppExchange, its sales store. Again, illustrating her capacity to engage in multiple projects at once, and her role as a pioneer in the social media industry, in 2007 as a side project she developed \u201cFaceForce\u201d \u2013 the first business application for Facebook \u2013 which connected Salesforce with Facebook, enabling people using Salesforce to view their Facebook contacts information in Salesforce when allowed. FaceForce was a big success and brought Clara to the attention of book publishers, Prentice Hall.<\/p>

Clara\u2019s first book \u2013 The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff \u2013 was published in 2009 and became a New York Times bestseller (the story goes that the editor wanted to name the book \u2018The MySpace Era\u2019 but Clara, illustrating her forward-thinking, insisted on \u2018The Facebook Era\u2019). An expanded second edition in 2010 has been referred to as \u2018the one indispensable social networking guide for every organization\u2019 and the book is now used by Harvard Business School as one of its marketing textbooks.<\/p>

Having received numerous calls from Fortune 500 companies asking \u201chow do we do what you\u2019ve described in the book?\u201d, Clara \u2013 who had long since realized that \u201csocial media would be transformational for businesses\u201d \u2013 decided to start a software company that would help Fortune 500 companies manage their marketing efforts using social media and so, in 2009, co-founded Hearsay Social (now known as \u201cHearsay Systems\u201d) along with Steve Garrity, a former computer lab partner whom she recruited from Microsoft.<\/p>

Clara has been its Chief Executive Officer since then. Originally run from her apartment, in 2013, the San Francisco headquartered company raised over $50 million in investment and is now the leading provider of predictive analytic client engagement and marketing solutions for banks and insurance companies. The company, which takes its name from the necessity of advisors to \u2018hear\u2019 what a client needs first, then \u2018say\u2019 what they can do to help (perhaps reflecting Clara\u2019s experience learning English) has operations in the U.S., Asia, and Europe.<\/p>

In December 2011, having been recommended by Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg, Clara was elected to the board of Starbucks and has served there since. Since 2013 she has also acted as an investor and advisor for several technology companies including BirdEye, Clarify Health, Color Genomics, Goldieblox, Gusto, Jewelbots, and Work4. Clara also served, between 2012 and 2014, on the board of the Ad Council, a non-profit organization that uses volunteers from the advertising and media industries to deliver public service advertising campaigns.<\/p>

In 2016, Prentice Hall published her second book The Social Business Imperative: Adapting Your Business Model to the Always-Connected Customer. Glowing reviews for this book were provided by some of the world\u2019s leading CEO\u2019s and COO\u2019s including Marne Levine (COO of Instagram), Robin Hayes (President of JetBlue), Walter Robb (Co-CEO of Whole Foods Market), Ted Mathias (Chairman and CEO of New York Life) and Chip Bergh (President and CEO of Levi Strauss).<\/p>

Clara has been named one of Fortune\u2019s \u201cMost Powerful Women Entrepreneurs,\u201d Fast Company\u2019s \u201cMost Influential People in Technology,\u201d Businessweek\u2019s \u201cTop Young Entrepreneurs,\u201d and a \u201cYoung Global Leader\u201d by the World Economic Forum. In 2012, she was listed in both Fortune\u2019s and Ad Age\u2019s \u201c40 Under 40,\u201d and has been listed also as InvestmentNews\u2019 \u201c40 Under 40\u201d and ThinkAdvisor\u2018s IA 25 \u2013 Industry Influencers.<\/p>

Clara is married to Daniel Chao, CEO of Halo Neuroscience, who holds a Master\u2019s degree in Neuroscience and a medical degree from Stanford. Her career to date reflects her ability to convert challenges and the assumptions of others into opportunities to create lasting, meaningful and fruitful relationships. She has found it intimidating at times having to work in male-dominated environments but believes that even by showing up, she and other women are helping forge a path that will make it easier for others in the future. She is active in encouraging women in business and technology and continues to encourage women and girls to pursue studies in mathematics, science and engineering.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excellence Hall of Fame Clara Shih Nominated by:\u00a0Elieen McDonnell Seconded by:\u00a0Matt Fisher\u00a0and\u00a0David Cullen \u201cIt was my tremendous honor to have nominated Clara to the Excellence Hall of Fame. Clara has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":24326,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-site-content-layout":"full-width-container","site-content-style":"unboxed","site-sidebar-style":"unboxed","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"enabled","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-24365","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24365\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}