Maureen Fan, Baobab Studios | Grace Hopper 2017
Channel: SiliconANGLE theCUBE
Date: 2017-10-12

Maureen Fan, Co-Founder & CEO, Baobab Studios, sits down with Rebecca Knight at Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2017 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

#GHC17 #theCUBE #WomenInTech

https://siliconangle.com/2017/10/11/high-technology-heroines-meet-women-blazing-new-trails-tech-ghc17-womenintech/

Taking the road less traveled to technology
In her new CEO role, Wilkerson will focus on “intersectionality” and bringing women into tech from diverse professional fields. Conference attendee Maureen Fan, co-founder and chief executive officer of Baobab Studios Inc., embodies this eclecticism.

“I designed my own major at Stanford; within eBay, I took four different roles,” Fan told theCUBE. “I just kept on creating my own roles and refusing to be bucketed as a creative or a suit; and you can be who you are and create a category unto yourself.”

Baobab Studios’ virtual reality animation Invasion won a 2017 Daytime Emmy award for Outstanding Interactive. Through VR, Fan took her own uncharted route into the entertainment industry, bypassing the usual who-knows-who hitches in show business.

“To break into that industry, you either have to have lots and lots of money or unfair distribution advantage,” she said. By contrast, VR is new and disruptive, so the playing field is level and open to anyone with an idea, Fan explained. “There’s no one telling us what we can and can’t do, because no one actually knows what we can and can’t do yet,” she added.