Deborah Liu

President & Chief Executive Officer

Deborah Liu
President & Chief Executive Officer

Deb Liu is the President and CEO of Ancestry. With over 19 years in the tech industry, she has been named one of Business Insider’s most powerful female engineers and one of PaymentsSource’s most influential women in payments. She was previously a senior executive at Facebook, where she created and led Facebook Marketplace, a platform for millions of people to buy from and sell to one another. She also led the development of Facebook’s first mobile ad product for apps and its mobile ad network, in addition to building the company’s games business and payments platform, which includes Facebook Pay. Prior to Facebook, she spent several years in product roles at PayPal and eBay, where she led integration between the two products. She serves on the board of Intuit and Ancestry and is a seed investor and advisor to several startups. She also holds several payments- and commerce-related patents. 

 

Actively involved in promoting diversity in tech, Deb founded Women In Product, a nonprofit with over 30,000 members, with the goal of connecting and supporting women in the product management field. She is a member of the Committee of 100, a group of prominent Chinese Americans, and was named an A100 by Gold House, an honor recognizing impactful Asian Americans. 


Deb received a BS in Civil Engineering from Duke University and an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Each week, she posts her thoughts in Perspectives, her Substack newsletter. She lives in California with her husband and three children, and enjoys chronicling their family adventures in her Mommy School comic strip.

Howard Hochhauser

Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer

Howard Hochhauser
Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer

Howard Hochhauser joined Ancestry in 2009 as Chief Financial Officer and in February 2012 added the position of Chief Operating Officer. Howard also served as interim CEO of Ancestry from October 2017 to May 2018 while the Board conducted a comprehensive search for a permanent CEO. 


During his tenure, Howard helped lead the Company’s initial 2009 public offering, its go-private transaction in 2012, several acquisitions and all of its public equity and debt financings. He was part of the team that helped grow the company from approximately $200 million in revenue in 2008, to more than $1 billion in revenue (on a non-GAAP basis) in 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 16%. 


Howard has received numerous awards, including CFO of 2021 by Silicon Slopes, Best CEO of 2018 by the Utah Technology Council, #1 Internet industry CFO of 2012 by Institutional Investor magazine and CFO of the year in 2012 by Utah Business Magazine. He serves on the board of Silicon Slopes, the American Technion Society and on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Envision Utah. He holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University and a B.S. from Boston University, and was formerly a CPA in the state of New York.

Brian Donnelly

Chief Commercial Officer

Brian Donnelly
Chief Commercial Officer

Brian Donnelly serves as Ancestry’s Chief Commercial Officer, leading the company’s global marketing efforts and the AncestryDNA business operations. His team is responsible for driving business growth across all markets and product lines for Ancestry, building a category defining brand globally, and delivering a delightful customer experience. He joined Ancestry in 2021 as Senior Vice President and General Manager of AncestryDNA. His role expanded to include General Management of the International Family History business in 2022, prior to assuming the CCO role in 2023.

Prior to Ancestry, Brian held a variety of general management and global commercial and marketing leadership roles at market-leading companies, including Amazon, Illumina, Sequenom, and Codex DNA where he was the Chief Commercial Officer.Brian serves on the Board of Directors at BreakBio, and is an investor and advisor to several startups. He received a BS in Business Administration and Marketing from Elon University and an MBA and JD from Rutgers University. He lives in San Diego, California with his wife, three children, and their family’s beloved labrador retriever.

Shane Koller

SVP, People & Places

Shane Koller
SVP, People & Places

Bringing 20+ years of experience in HR across high tech, healthcare, and medical device industries, Shane’s passion is creating a culture of high performance for companies in growth mode. For nearly seven years, Shane played a key role in the global expansion, merger and acquisition, and integration work for Omniture, helping to guide the company through a successful acquisition by Adobe for $1.8 billion.                                       

Looking to broaden his industry knowledge, Shane joined Edwards Lifesciences in 2011 and played a key leadership role in the 100%+ year over year growth for the Utah site.                

Shane joined Domo in 2013 to assist in developing its talent and culture as the company grew at 100%+ year over year. His side hustle at the time was as a product evangelist for the Domo platform, and he spent every free minute on demo calls with the Sales team.        

Sensing it was time to try his hand at small startups again, Shane joined Banjo in 2019 to guide them on their rapid, organic growth. The company more than doubled in the short time he was there, during which time Shane was able to implement a number of programs to help the company scale and keep the core culture strong.            

Shane has admired Ancestry from afar for some time now, and was thrilled to have the opportunity to join the team in 2020. In his first role with the company, he led the Talent Management, Talent Development and Talent Operations functions, focusing on connecting the dots across the employee lifecycle to ensure a cohesive and meaningful employee experience. In October of 2021, Shane took on leadership of the global People & Places function and has been guiding the company through the next chapter in its product vision to build Ancestry for all.                                        

Shane is a Utah native and enjoys being part of the growth of Silicon Slopes. He holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Utah and lives in South Jordan with his wife and four children. 

Julie Miller

Chief Communications Officer

Julie Miller
Chief Communications Officer

Julie Miller joined Ancestry® in August 2019 as senior vice president, Chief Communications Officer, responsible for leading strategic communications and promoting the overall reputation of Ancestry with authentic, transparent and engaging storytelling. Julie is an accomplished senior executive with extensive experience developing impactful and integrated communications strategies to drive growth. Passionate about leadership and developing world-class, highly motivated teams, Julie has a proven track delivering successful global communications programs to build brand equity and trust, increase consideration and amplify the business to internal and external audiences. Prior to joining Ancestry, Julie served as vice president of Corporate Communications at Intuit, Inc. where she led communications for Intuit’s corporate brand and flagship consumer brands, including TurboTax. Julie also deep expertise in reputation management, executive positioning, public affairs and financial communications. Before joining Intuit, Julie held multiple communications leadership roles in consumer, healthcare and high-tech in both corporate and agency environments including Anacomp, Inc. and Sharp Healthcare Systems. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of California, San Diego and an MBA from San Diego State University with an emphasis in Marketing.

Greg Packer

General Counsel

Greg Packer
General Counsel

Greg Packer has served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary of Ancestry since May of 2021, where he is responsible for all legal functions of the company, including mergers & acquisitions, corporate & securities, litigation, intellectual property, risk management and labor/employment. Prior to his most recent appointment, Greg served as Ancestry’s Vice President & Associate General Counsel. Greg has previously held other General Counsel positions over the past decade, including the General Counsel of Lonestar Resources US Inc., a publicly traded energy company, and Howard Energy Partners, a private-equity backed infrastructure company. Prior to his in-house legal career, Greg practiced corporate and securities law at Latham & Watkins LLP, where he represented public and private companies and private equity sponsors in a wide range of transactions, including company formation, private and public mergers and acquisitions, as well as accessing equity and debt markets through private and public offerings, including initial public offerings. Greg is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, where he was a Lowenstein Scholar. Prior to attending law school, Greg obtained both Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in accounting from Brigham Young University, where he was a G. Roger Victor Scholar.

Sriram Thiagarajan

Chief Technology Officer

Sriram Thiagarajan
Chief Technology Officer

Sriram Thiagarajan has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Ancestry, since November 2020 and is responsible for ensuring Ancestry’s customers have the best product experience powered by its software products, advanced technologies and cloud platform. Sriram leads the overall vision, strategy and execution for all aspects of Ancestry’s product engineering and technology development including architecture, data science and product analytics, platform engineering, cloud operations, cyber security, corporate infrastructure and business systems. Sriram joined Ancestry in 2017 as Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer, and in December 2019 added the position of SVP Platforms. Sriram is a seasoned, growth minded technology executive with 20+ years of experience in scaling businesses and delivering growth by leveraging advanced technologies and software solutions at Fortune 500, Venture and Private Equity backed companies.

Prior to Ancestry, Sriram served as SVP & Chief Information Officer at Infoblox, where he was responsible for Information Technology and Cybersecurity. Before Infoblox, Sriram was the Global Head of IT & Corporate Engineering at Twitter, where he helped architect and scale corporate infrastructure, enterprise applications and integrations to revenue and billing platforms, to help prepare the company for its IPO. Prior to Twitter, Sriram served as VP of Payments Infrastructure & Corporate Systems at Yahoo, and its premium services monetization platform and enterprise systems organizations. Earlier in his career, Sriram held leadership roles at Verisign and Ernst & Young. Sriram holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Florida Atlantic University, FL. and a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics & Communications Engineering from Anna University, India.

Tina Hwang

Chief Privacy Officer

Tina Hwang
Chief Privacy Officer

“Our users’ trust is my top priority, and I am excited to lead the team that will continue to deliver on the company’s longstanding commitment to privacy.”

As Chief Privacy Officer & VP Legal, Tina is responsible for safeguarding the privacy of our users.   She joined Ancestry in March 2023 and brings 17 years of experience in legal compliance to Ancestry at some of the largest and most iconic global technology companies.   

Tina served most recently as VP and Deputy General Counsel at Twitter, where she led a global team responsible for the product, IP, and privacy/regulatory compliance implementation functions. 

Before that, Tina was Senior Director and AGC at WhatsApp, leading a central legal team during a time when the user base expanded globally to 10 billion users. 

Prior to WhatsApp, Tina spent nearly ten years at Google, holding various legal and leadership roles, counseling eCommerce, payments, and communications products.

Tina is a proud native of St. Louis, Missouri.  Tina holds a JD from UC Hastings College of the Law and a BS in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University.

Todd Godfrey

Vice President Global Content

Todd Godfrey
Vice President Global Content

“Everyone wants to understand their place in the bigger picture.”

Todd travels the world in search of records that open up new discoveries for Ancestry® customers. The most exciting part of his job is when those records start shaking leaves on his own family tree.

Todd inherited his love of travel from his parents and it’s a passion that has served him well throughout his career. That’s because it takes a deep respect and personal understanding of local cultures to unlock certain records. The impact of that work is something that Todd shares with his wife and 3 children. In fact, it’s become a family tradition to spend holidays and summers “on the road,” visiting places like England and Germany where Todd and his family have uncovered deep family roots.

Todd draws inspiration from his ancestors’ life stories and seeks to inspire his own children through his work. Leading a transcription team of thousands across the globe, Todd takes pride in the jobs that are created and the work that lifts entire generations when his team’s efforts to publish new records are successful. 

Ashlee Davis, J.D.

Global Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Ashlee Davis, J.D.
Global Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

“One of the strongest and most important threads that unites all of us is the importance of family.”

Ashlee Davis brings 15 years of diversity and civil rights experience to lead Ancestry’s global end-to-end Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) strategy. She believes every person’s story deserves to be found and shared, and is committed to cultivating a true sense of belonging for Ancestry’s global workforce and customers.

To deliver a product experience that truly serves everyone, Ashlee is dedicated to building a workforce that reflects our diverse global customer base. She heads policies and programs to foster an inclusive and equitable work environment where there are different voices and backgrounds at the table. In partnership with product and marketing leaders, Ashlee helps ensure our product experiences are inclusive so that everyone can easily discover, craft and connect around their family story."

Ashlee is a native of Nashville, TN, a proud graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Howard University School of Law, an avid sports fan, and someone with wanderlust who is always planning her next adventure with her life partner.

Jennifer Utley

Director of Family History Research

Jennifer Utley
Director of Family History Research

“I have a front row seat to witness how family history discoveries impact and enhance lives.”

Jennifer’s journey at Ancestry® began more than 20 years ago with a love of editing, writing, and publishing—and a strong desire to remain close to her Utah roots. Today, her passion for storytelling remains at an all-time high, thanks in part to the technological innovations she’s witnessed throughout her career. Stories that once took days to research now unfold in minutes. It’s Jennifer’s job to surface the power of Ancestry® for television programming, public relations campaigns, and media outlets.

On a personal note, Jennifer has had the pleasure of tracing her interests in publishing, reading, and music to not-so-distant relatives. And by learning more about the adversity some of her ancestors faced, Jennifer is able to draw strength and resolve to achieve her own goals. From battle-worn grandfathers to early colonial patriots, Jennifer’s family history embodies a bold sense of pride in forging ahead where others might give pause. This makes her the perfect choice to curate and distribute the most compelling Ancestry® narratives to empower personal discoveries and enrich lives.

For Jennifer, the most rewarding part of her work at Ancestry® is the emotional connections that develop when customers keep coming back to connect their own dots.

Mark Thompson - Chairman of the Board

Sir Mark Thompson became Chairman and CEO of CNN on October 9, 2023. Mark is also the Chairman of Ancestry; Deputy Chair of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Co-Chair of the International Fund for Public Interest Media, a new global fund to support journalists around the world. Mark stepped down as President and CEO of The New York Times Company in the summer of 2020 after an eight-year tenure (2012-20) during which he led the transformation of the 170-year-old news brand into a digital powerhouse. Digital subscribers jumped to nearly 6 million, up from half a million when he joined. NYTCo stock quintupled in value during his period as CEO. Sir Mark’s appointment at The New York Times Company followed an eight-year term (2004-12) as Director General (Editor-in-Chief and Chief Executive) of the BBC. As well as guiding the BBC’s coverage of the global financial crisis and the 2012 London Olympic Games, he is credited with major advances in the BBC’s digital offering and digital audience reach, including the successful launch of the BBC’s iPlayer, one of the world’s first streaming services from a major broadcaster (2007). He joined the BBC from Channel 4 where he was Chief Executive from 2002 to 2004. Before Channel 4 he held a series of senior posts at the BBC including Editor of The Nine O’clock News and Panorama, Controller of BBC Two and Director of Television. His book, “Enough Said: What’s Gone Wrong with the Language of Politics?” was published in the UK and US in September 2016. He was born in London in 1957 and was educated at Stonyhurst College and Merton College Oxford. He is an honorary fellow of Merton College Oxford and a member of the American Philosophical Society. He is married and has three children. His main home is in New York City. He was knighted for services to Media in the King’s Birthday Honours June 2023.

Gene Alston

Gene Alston is the Vice President of Commerce Business and Operations at Facebook. He is responsible for all strategy and teams for commerce products across Facebook’s family of apps, revenue and client satisfaction globally.

Gene has over 20+years of business leadership experience in high growth, disruptive consumer internet companies. Prior to his current role, Gene led global marketing partnerships at Facebook. Before Facebook, Gene was at Pinterest, Groupon, and PayPal where he led teams and was responsible for
business development, partnerships, acquisitions, and international expansion. Gene holds two patents in the payments and offers space from his work at Groupon.

A Husky at heart, Gene holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Washington and a J.D. and MBA from University of California Los Angeles. Before returning to graduate school, Gene served as a
Naval Officer stationed on the USS Worden. He’s also a very proud dad of three children and lives in the Bay Area with his wife.

Joseph Baratta

Joseph Baratta is Global Head of Private Equity and a member of the firm's Management Committee. He also serves on many of the firm’s investment committees.

Mr. Baratta joined Blackstone in 1998 and in 2001 he moved to London to help establish Blackstone’s corporate private equity business in Europe. Since 2012, Mr. Baratta has served as the firm’s Global Head of Private Equity and is located in New York.

Mr. Baratta has served on the boards of many past Blackstone portfolio companies and currently serves as a member or observer on the boards of First Eagle Investment Management, Refinitiv, SESAC and Merlin Entertainments Group. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Georgetown University; is a trustee of the Tate Foundation; serves on the board of Year Up, an organization focused on youth employment; and serves on the Board of Trustees of Trinity School in New York City.

Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Baratta was with Tinicum Incorporated and McCown De Leeuw & Company. Mr. Baratta also worked at Morgan Stanley in its mergers and acquisitions department. Mr. Baratta graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University.

Sachin Bavishi

Sachin Bavishi is a Managing Director in Blackstone’s Private Equity Group. Mr. Bavishi currently focuses on new investment opportunities in Technology, Media & Telecom (TMT). Since joining Blackstone in 2013, Mr. Bavishi has been involved in the execution of the firm’s investments in Ancestry, Bumble, Catalent, Ipreo, Kronos, Performance Food Group, Pinnacle Foods, Refinitiv, SESAC, Tradeweb, Trilliant Food & Nutrition, UKG (Ultimate Software / Kronos), and Vungle. He currently serves as a Director of Bumble, Refinitiv, SESAC, UKG, and Vungle.

Prior to joining Blackstone, Mr. Bavishi was an Associate at Olympus Partners where he evaluated and executed private equity investments across several industries. Prior to that, he worked in investment banking at Piper Jaffray in the Healthcare Group.

Mr. Bavishi earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from The University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he graduated with Highest Distinction (Top 5%), and an MBA from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated as a Palmer Scholar.

Howard Hochhauser

Howard Hochhauser joined Ancestry® in 2009 as Chief Financial Officer and in February 2012 added the position of Chief Operating Officer. Howard also served as interim CEO of Ancestry from October 2017 to May 2018 while the Board conducted a comprehensive search for a permanent CEO. During his tenure, Howard has helped lead the Company’s initial 2009 public offering, its go-private transaction in 2012, seven acquisitions and all of its public equity and debt financings. He was part of the team that helped grow the company from approximately $200 million in revenue in 2008, to more than $1 billion in revenue in 2017, a compound annual growth rate of over 21%. Prior to joining Ancestry, Howard served as Chief Financial Officer of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and earlier in his career was a Vice President of Equity Research at Bear Stearns & Co. and a Staff Accountant at KPMG Peat Marwick. Howard has received numerous awards, including #1 Internet industry CFO of 2012 by Institutional Investor magazine and CFO of the year in 2012 by Utah Business Magazine. Howard was also recently named Best CEO of 2018 by the Utah Technology Council. He is a Certified Public Accountant and holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University and a B.S. from Boston University.

David Kestnbaum

David N. Kestnbaum is a Senior Managing Director in the Private Equity Group. He currently focuses on investments in Business Services, Leisure & Entertainment, Media & Telecom, and Transportation & Logistics, amongst other sectors.

Since joining Blackstone in 2013, Mr. Kestnbaum has been involved in the execution of Blackstone’s current investments in Merlin Entertainments, SERVPRO, PSAV, Alight Solutions, SESAC, Tradesmen, and Outerstuff, as well as prior investments in AlliedBarton Security Services, AVINTIV, Cloverleaf Cold Storage, and DJO Global. Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Kestnbaum was a Vice President of Vestar Capital Partners, and was previously a member of JP Morgan’s Financial Sponsor Group.

Mr. Kestnbaum holds a BA in Political Science from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is currently a Director of SERVPRO, PSAV, Packers Sanitation Services Inc. (PSSI), Alight Solutions, SESAC, Tradesmen, and Outerstuff. He is currently representing Blackstone as a 2019-20 Partnership for New York City Rockefeller Fellow, and was previously a member of the Associates Council of Prep for Prep, a New York-based non-profit organization.

Deborah Liu

Deb Liu joined Ancestry in March 2021 as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the company’s Board of Directors. Prior to joining Ancestry, Deb was a senior executive at Facebook where she created and led Facebook's Marketplace, where millions of people buy and sell from one another. She also led the development of Facebook’s first mobile ad product for apps and its mobile ad network, in addition to building the company’s games business and its payments platform, including Facebook Pay. 

Named by PaymentsSource as one of the most influential women in payments and one of Business Insider's most powerful female engineers, Deb has worked in the tech industry for over 18 years. Prior to Facebook, she spent several years in product roles at PayPal and eBay, including leading the integration between the two products. 

Actively involved with promoting diversity and women in tech, she is the founder of Women in Product, a nonprofit to connect and support women in the product management field. Deb serves on the board of Intuit, and she’s a seed investor and advisor to several startups. She also holds several payments and commerce-related patents. 

Deb received a BS in Civil Engineering from Duke University and an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. She lives in California with her husband and three children, and she enjoys chronicling their family adventures in her Mommy School comic. 

Alex Moskowitz

Alex Moskowitz is a Senior Vice President in the Direct Investments Group in the Americas for GIC’s Private Equity and Infrastructure arm. Before joining GIC in 2008, Mr. Moskowitz was an associate at CIVC Partners, a middle-market private equity fund, and an analyst at William Blair & Company. He has board responsibilities for several GIC portfolio companies, including HUB International Limited, Kronos Incorporated, and Ancestry.com. Mr. Moskowitz received an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA in Economics, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania.

Lorrie Norrington

Lorrie Norrington has over 30 years of operating experience in technology, software, and internet businesses. Norrington currently serves as an Advisor and in an Operating Partner capacity for Lead Edge Capital. Lead Edge is a growth equity firm that partners with world-class entrepreneurs and exceptional technology businesses.

Prior to Lead Edge Capital, Norrington was the President of eBay Marketplaces and led all eBay businesses in 39 countries. Previously she served as President and COO of eBay Marketplaces and President of eBay International, in Europe and Asia. Prior to joining eBay, Norrington was the CEO of Shopping.com Inc., an online shopping comparison site acquired by eBay in 2005.

Prior to eBay, Norrington was an officer at Intuit, Inc., where she led the Quicken and QuickBooks brands and later became an Executive Vice President in the Office of the CEO. She also led a variety of businesses at General Electric Company over a twenty-year period in a broad range of industries, including her last position as an officer of GE and CEO of GE FANUC.

Norrington has an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS degree from the University of Maryland. She also serves on the board of Colgate-Palmolive, HubSpot, Autodesk and Eventbrite. Previous boards include DIRECTV, Shopping.com, McAfee, TaskRabbit, Catawiki, and Lucasfilm.

Tim Sullivan

Tim Sullivan has served on the Ancestry® Board of Directors since October 2017.  Previously, Sullivan served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Ancestry, and as a director of the Predecessor from September 2005 to October 2017 and has been a member of the Operating Committee since January 2013. Prior to joining Ancestry, he was Chief Operating Officer and then President and CEO of Match.com from January 2001 to September 2004. From May 1999 to January 2001, Tim served as Vice President of E-commerce for Ticketmaster Online-Citysearch, Inc. From June 1991 to May 1999, he held multiple positions at The Walt Disney Company, including Vice President and Managing Director of Buena Vista Home Entertainment Asia Pacific from July 1997 to May 1999. From December 2005 to February 2008, Tim served as a director of Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. Tim holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and was a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Operating Committee believes that his qualifications to serve on the Operating Committee include extensive executive management experience, including experience as our own Chief Executive Officer as well as the former chief executive officer of a subscription-based Internet company.

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