Michele Jawando is stepping into one of the most consequential roles in technology philanthropy at exactly the right moment. The civil rights attorney and former Google executive has been elevated from president to CEO of Omidyar Network — the philanthropic organization founded by eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar — effective next month. Her promotion was announced on March 11, and it signals a clear shift in how the organization intends to engage with the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence landscape.
For Jawando, this is not simply a career advancement. It is an opportunity to do something she clearly feels is urgently needed: ensure that the people most affected by AI technology are not simply passengers along for the ride, but active participants in shaping where it goes.
What Jawando Plans to Do as CEO of Omidyar Network
Jawando has been direct and specific about the direction she intends to take Omidyar Network under her leadership. “Our focus will be making sure that there is a much more diverse set of views and people and coalitions and voices shaping the moments, the opportunities, and the rules for the AI era,” she said in a statement. That mandate is both broader and more ambitious than the typical philanthropic mission statement — it is a declaration that the current concentration of AI decision-making power is a problem worth solving.
Central to her vision is the idea that ordinary people should feel empowered by AI, not overwhelmed by it. “I just want people to feel agency and power in this moment,” she said plainly. “I hate the fact that most people feel like this technology is happening to them.” That framing — technology happening to people rather than for them or with them — captures something real about the current public relationship with AI, and it gives Jawando’s leadership a clear and relatable purpose from day one.
Why This Appointment Matters in the Current AI Landscape
Jawando’s elevation to CEO comes at a particularly loaded moment in the relationship between technology companies, government, and the public. The philanthropic sector has been watching closely as the Trump administration clashed with AI company Anthropic after the firm declined to allow the federal government unrestricted military use of its technology. That dispute, Jawando has noted, underscores a fundamental problem with the current structure of AI governance — namely, that a small group of private companies should not be solely responsible for drawing the lines around what she describes as “really powerful super-tools.”
“The responsible and safe use of AI shouldn’t be just one company’s mantra,” she said. “It’s not that some companies are too responsible and others aren’t. It’s just that we don’t have a public governance framework.” That observation cuts to the heart of one of the defining technology policy debates of the era: who gets to set the rules for AI, and in whose interest are those rules written? Jawando’s background as a civil rights lawyer and her experience working inside a major tech company gives her a uniquely positioned perspective on that question.
Omidyar Network’s $30 Million AI Portfolio and the Broader Strategy
Omidyar Network has been actively positioning itself to engage more seriously with artificial intelligence. The organization recently launched a $30 million generative AI portfolio specifically designed to address what its leadership sees as gaps in philanthropy’s engagement with the technology. While philanthropic organizations generally lack the financial firepower and political influence of AI companies valued in the hundreds of billions — many of which have already secured favorable policy positions under the current administration — Jawando’s strategy centers on building power through coalition rather than capital.
Her role will involve strengthening connections across the philanthropic sector and ensuring that the perspectives of working people are meaningfully represented in conversations that currently happen mostly behind closed doors in Silicon Valley boardrooms. That approach reflects both her civil rights background and her understanding that lasting change rarely comes from a single organization acting alone — it comes from building enough collective weight to shift the center of gravity in a given debate.
Outgoing CEO Praises Jawando’s Collaborative Approach and Track Record
The transition of leadership from outgoing CEO Mike Kubzansky to Jawando has been framed as a natural progression rather than a disruption, and Kubzansky has been generous in his assessment of what she brings to the role. He highlighted her position as co-chair of a philanthropic coalition that has committed $500 million to AI initiatives prioritizing the public interest — a significant achievement that speaks to her ability to mobilize resources and align stakeholders around a shared mission.
Kubzansky also pointed to something perhaps more difficult to quantify but equally important: her instinct for collaboration over confrontation. “She rarely jumps to the oppositional card first,” he said. “She finds new partners for us and she brings people along.” He also credited her with bringing major new funders into the AI space, including the Doris Duke Foundation and the Lumina Foundation — organizations whose involvement broadens the coalition Omidyar Network can draw on as it works to shape the future of AI governance.
What Makes Michele Jawando the Right Leader for This Moment
Jawando’s background is precisely what the moment calls for. As a civil rights lawyer, she has spent her career thinking about power — who has it, who does not, and how systems can be designed to distribute it more equitably. As a former Google executive who oversaw the company’s public policy partnerships, she understands how the technology industry actually operates from the inside. That combination of advocacy experience and industry knowledge is rare, and it positions her uniquely to navigate the complex intersection of philanthropy, technology, and public policy that defines Omidyar Network’s work.
Furthermore, her clear-eyed diagnosis of the problem — the absence of a genuine public governance framework for AI — gives her leadership a specific, actionable focus. She is not simply calling for more diversity in tech as a vague aspiration. She is identifying a structural gap, articulating why it matters, and stepping into a role that gives her real resources and relationships to begin addressing it. For the millions of people who currently feel like AI is something happening to them rather than something they have any say in, Jawando’s elevation to CEO of Omidyar Network is a meaningful and timely development.