Hema Budaraju

Hema Budaraju is a Senior Director at Google, leading Social Impact verticals on Google Search. In her role, Hema is focused on helping people connect with authoritative and timely information and make more informed choices across healthcare, civic services, sustainability and more. During her tenure, her team has delivered multiple features on Google Maps and Search that are helping people get critical COVID-19 vaccination and testing information around the world, right when they most need it. Hema is a visionary and empathetic leader, with a razor sharp focus on creating positive societal impact at scale. Prior to Google, Hema built products and teams in leading technology companies such as Oracle, Nokia, Amazon, eBay, Paypal and Facebook, in a career spanning 20+ years. At Facebook, Hema helped launch the Blood Donations feature to make it easier for people to donate blood and help address the shortage of safe blood.

Hema has an engineering degree in Electronics from Mumbai University, India and a Masters in Business Administration from Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, India and holds seven patents. She was nominated to Silicon Valley Women of Influence in 2015. She is also on the Board of Bay Area Global Health Alliance. Her family is a big part of who she is – she lives in the Bay Area with her husband, two teenagers and a golden retriever. Hema intrinsically believes that technology is a force for good and that it is our collective responsibility to make it so.