# Anne Wojcicki

Anne E. Wojcicki (/wuːˈtʃɪtski/ woo-CHITS-kee; born July 28, 1973) is an American entrepreneur who co-founded and is CEO of the personal genomics company 23andMe. She founded the company in 2006 with Linda Avey and Paul Cusenza. She is a co-founder and board member of the Breakthrough Prize.

## Early life and education

Wojcicki was born in Palo Alto, California, the youngest of three sisters: Susan Wojcicki, former CEO of YouTube, and Janet Wojcicki, an anthropologist and epidemiologist. Her maternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants. Her parents are Esther Wojcicki (née Hochman), an educator and journalist, and Stanley Wojcicki, a Polish-born physics professor emeritus at Stanford University. The three sisters grew up on Stanford's campus. When she was fourteen, she learned how to figure skate and later started playing ice hockey.
Wojcicki attended Gunn High School in Palo Alto, where she edited the school newspaper, The Oracle, and won a scholarship for her sports stories. She received a Bachelor of Science in biology at Yale University in 1996. During her time there she played on the varsity women's ice hockey team. She conducted molecular biology research at the National Institutes of Health and at the University of California, San Diego.

## Career

After graduating, Wojcicki worked as a healthcare consultant at Passport Capital, a San Francisco-based investment fund and Investor AB. She was a healthcare investment analyst for four years, overseeing health care investments and focusing on biotechnology companies. Disillusioned by the culture of Wall Street and its attitude towards health care, she decided to forgo taking the MCAT to enroll in medical school and instead decided to focus on biological research.
Wojcicki is a member of the Xconomists, an ad hoc team of editorial advisors for the tech news and media company Xconomy. In October 2013, Fast Company named Wojcicki "The Most Daring CEO". She is a co-founder and board member of the Breakthrough Prize. As of 2020, she is listed as number 93 in Forbes list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women. In August 2021 Wojcicki joined the board of Cazoo.
Wojcicki has been closely involved in the downtown business district of Los Altos, California. In approximately 2005, Wojcicki and her then husband Sergey Brin bought at least half a dozen commercial properties in downtown Los Altos. Under the name of Passerelle Investment Company, they sponsored events and urban planning initiatives throughout the downtown business district. In 2016, the firm was renamed to Los Altos Community Investments and given a tighter focus on commercial real-estate development. In 2021, Los Altos Community Investments opened a food hall in downtown Los Altos called the State Street Market. The initiative expanded to include an arts-and crafts store, a video arcade, and an indoor play space. The focus of development was to create spaces that foster community interaction and enjoyment.

### 23andMe

Wojcicki co-founded and is CEO of 23andMe, a direct-to-consumer DNA testing company that allows consumers to analyze their ancestry and health risks. She founded the company in 2006, with Linda Avey and Paul Cusenza, intending to provide common people access to their genetic information, which could further provide information on cures for diseases or treatments , especially with the help of GSK plc and its $300 million investment. Wojcicki has expressed interest in "revolutioniz[ing] health care" with DNA testing, as it could provide consumers with information to predict potential genetic illnesses.
Consumers can purchase testing kits that provide information on ancestry, health, and genetic traits. The company takes saliva samples that are mailed in by buyers, and processes the genetic data, posting the results online for the buyer to view.
The company is named for the 23 pairs of chromosomes in a normal human cell. The company's genome test kit was named "Invention of the Year" by Time magazine in 2008. Beginning in 2015, the Food and Drug Administration started to give approval to 23andMe's health-related tests, including risk from cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, certain cancers, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and coeliac disease. In 2018, 23andMe entered into a four-year collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline to develop new medicines.
When Wojcicki took 23andMe public through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company in 2021, Forbes dubbed her the "newest self-made billionaire." By 2024, the company's valuation had fallen to 2 percent of its peak value of $6 billion, prompting Wojcicki to make a buyout offer to take the company private; the company's board of directors rejected her proposal and all seven independent directors quit.

## Personal life

Wojcicki married Google co-founder Sergey Brin in May 2007. They have a son, born in 2008, and a daughter born in late 2011. They separated in 2013, and divorced in 2015. Brin and Wojcicki jointly run the Brin Wojcicki Foundation. They have donated extensively to the Michael J. Fox Foundation and in 2009, gave $1 million to support the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. She joined The Giving Pledge in 2022, committing to donating most of her wealth. In July 2019, Wojcicki gave birth to her third child, a daughter, through sperm donation.
Her grandfather Franciszek Wójcicki was a People's Party and Polish People's Party politician who was elected MP during the 1947 Polish legislative election. Her grandmother, Janina Wójcicka Hoskins, was a Polish-American librarian at the Library of Congress who was responsible for building the largest collection of Polish material in the United States.