What The Tech?: Ownership, Inclusion, and Errthing with Bari A. Williams, J.D.

On this episode, I Zoom in with Bari A. Williams and we chat about the need for women and people of color to create their own opportunities, what she learned from Zuckerburg, inclusion and much more.

Bärí A. Williams is Head of Business Operations Management, North America at StubHub as of January 2017. In this role, she is responsible for business planning and operations, including cross functional work with Product, Marketing, Strategy, Partnerships, Customer Service, Trust and Safety to manage and oversee technical metrics, product innovation, key strategic partnerships and drive P&L results across the company.

Prior to StubHub, Ms. Williams was Lead Counsel for the Global Infrastructure, Development, and Operations (“Inbound”) Commercial Legal team at Facebook. In this role, she drafted and negotiated contracts supporting Facebook’s internet.org connectivity efforts, building aircrafts, satellites, and lasers, along with purchasing and procurement to keep the company running – from software and hardware for the development of new products for users, including marketing messenger bots for Tommy Hilfiger during Fashion Week, to deals for supplies and equipment needed to take care of Facebook employees worldwide. Additionally, she also successfully took on the passion project of developing strategy and implementing the launch Facebook’s Supplier Diversity Program, announced at White House Demo Day in 2015, and officially launched at NMSDC in October 2016. She also served on Facebook’s Black Employee Resource Group leadership team, which launched “Black Leadership Day” event.

Prior to joining Facebook, Ms. Williams was an attorney at CSAA Insurance Exchange, formerly known as AAA Insurance, where her work focused on commercial contracts, primarily in the IT space, data and privacy.

In addition to advising and counseling startups, Ms. Williams is a writer. Her writing has been featured in The New York Times, Fortune, TheRoot.com, WIRED, and Fast Company. She has been a featured speaker on panels at festivals and events, and has been featured on Elle.com (online feature of ElleMagazine), TheRoot.com, Levo League, and in Black Enterprise,  Essence, and the Sept. 2017 Most Powerful Women print edition of Fortune magazines. She is a 2015 recipient of the National Bar Association’s “40 Under 40” award, recognizing young attorneys excelling in achievement, innovation, vision, leadership and legal community involvement in their careers, as well as their “Excellence in Legal Innovation” award, and a 2015 recipient of the Digital Diversity Network’s “Top 40 Under 40: Tech Diversity” award.

Ms. Williams is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley (BA, Mass Communications), St. Mary’s College of California (MBA), the University of California, Los Angeles (MA, African-American Studies), and the University of California, Hastings College of Law (JD). She is also very active in her community as a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., The Links, Incorporated, and in political organizing and fundraising at the local, state, and national level. An Oakland native, she and her husband, Jaime, live in Oakland with their two children.