Joanna Shields (Baroness Shields OBE) is a tech industry veteran with a successful track record building some of the world’s best-known companies. Her career spans over 30 years and has focussed on harnessing the power of technology to drive change that improves connectivity, humanity and society. Joanna is currently Chief Executive Officer of BenevolentAI, a leading clinical-stage AI drug discovery company using AI to develop more effective medicines.

Prior to joining BenevolentAI, Joanna served as the UK’s first Minister for Internet Safety and Security, Under Secretary of State, Special Advisor on the Digital Economy, and Chair & CEO of TechCityUK.

Prior to her government service, Joanna held executive roles at Google, Facebook, Bebo/Aol, Decru, RealNetworks, Veon and EFI and served as a non-executive director of the London Stock Exchange Group.

Joanna founded WePROTECT.org, a multi-stakeholder global alliance working to protect children from online abuse and exploitation. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity and the Child Dignity Alliance. She is also a Commissioner on the Oxford Commission on AI & Good Governance (OxCAIGG) and sits as the Co-Chair of the Steering Committee and Chair of the Multi-stakeholder Experts Group Plenary on the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), a multi-stakeholder initiative supported by the OECD and counting more than 25 member countries plus the EU all working at the trustworthy development and deployment of AI.

Among her many honours, Shields was ranked first on the Wired 100 UK's digital power brokers in 2011 and was named the most influential women in UK IT by Computer Weekly in 2013 . She received the HRH Fatima Bint Mubarak Award for Motherhood and Childhood and the Thank You Award from World Childhood Foundation for her lifetime commitment to protect the rights and safety of children worldwide.

In 2014, Joanna was appointed OBE for services to digital industries and voluntary service to young people and made a Life Peer of the House of Lords.