Anne Wojcicki is an American entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of 23andMe, a leading personal genomics and biotechnology company based in Sunnyvale, California. 23andMe is renowned for its direct-to-consumer genetic testing service, which uses a lab-tested saliva sample to provide customers with information about their ethnicity and genetic predispositions to various health issues. The company’s name references the 23 pairs of chromosomes in a typical human cell.

Early Life, Education, and Family

Anne Wojcicki was born on July 28, 1973, in San Mateo County, California, the youngest of three daughters. Her parents are Esther Wojcicki, an educator of Russian Jewish descent, and Stanley Wojcicki, an emeritus professor of physics at Stanford University. Her sisters are YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and anthropologist Janet Wojcicki of the University of California, San Francisco. Raised on the Stanford campus, Anne learned to skate at two years old before switching to ice hockey. She attended Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California, where she was the editor of the school newspaper, The Oracle, and won a scholarship for her short stories.

Wojcicki attended Yale University, where she was a competitive ice skater and played on the varsity women’s ice hockey team. She graduated with a degree in Biology and conducted molecular biology research at the National Institutes of Health and the University of California, San Diego.

Career and Achievements

After graduating, Wojcicki worked as a healthcare consultant at Passport Capital and Investor AB. She then became a healthcare investment analyst, focusing on biotech companies, but became disillusioned with Wall Street’s culture and its approach to healthcare. In 2000, she left her job intending to take the MCAT and enroll in medical school, but instead decided to focus on research.

In 2006, Wojcicki co-founded 23andMe with Linda Avey. In 2008, Time magazine named the company’s personal genome test kit the “Invention of the Year.” Starting in 2015, the FDA began approving 23andMe’s health-related assessments, including those for cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, various cancers, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and celiac disease. In 2018, 23andMe entered a four-year agreement with GlaxoSmithKline to develop new pharmaceutical products.

Wojcicki is also a member of The Economists’ ad hoc editorial advisory board for Xconomy, a technology news and media service. Fast Company named her the “Most Bold CEO” in October 2013. She is a co-founder and board member of the Breakthrough Prize.

Personal Life

In May 2007, Anne Wojcicki married Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google. They have a son, Benji Wojin, born in December 2008, and a daughter, Chloe Wojin, born in late 2011. Wojcicki is not religious. The couple separated in 2013 and divorced in 2015.

Her grandfather, Franciszek Wójcicki, was a Polish People’s Party and People’s Party politician elected as a deputy during the 1947 Polish parliamentary elections. Her grandmother, Janina Wójcicka Hoskins, was a Polish-American librarian at the Library of Congress who built the largest collection of Polish materials in the United States.

Net Worth

Anne Wojcicki has a net worth of $440 million. In July 2018, her company 23andMe received a $300 million investment from GlaxoSmithKline, partnering in drug development. 23andMe also conducts its own drug discovery and is valued at $2.5 billion, with backers including Google.