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Deb Liu in 2016

Deborah Liu is an American technology executive and the former CEO of genealogy company, Ancestry from 2021 to January 2025[1][2] Liu served on the board of Intuit[3] and co-founded the nonprofit organisation Women in Product.[4][5][6] She is the founder of the artificial intelligence startup Ember AI.[7]

Early life and education

Liu is of Chinese descent and her parents emigrated to the U.S. in the 1960s.[8] She was raised in a small town in South Carolina.[9] She is a graduate of Duke University (B.S.E in Civil Engineering) and Stanford Business School.[10]

Career

Liu was director of product for the end-to-end buyer experience at eBay and spearheaded the integration between eBay and PayPal.[3][11] She was director of product marketing management and product management at PayPal.[12]

In 2009, she joined Facebook,[13] where she worked on Facebook Credits and Facebook Platform[14] and helped build their mobile app install ad business.[15] In 2016, as VP of product development, she relaunched Facebook Marketplace[8][16] and became VP of marketplace in 2017.[17]

After being at Facebook for 11 years, Liu joined Ancestry.com as its CEO March 1, 2021.[18]

She was included on Business Insider‘s list of “The Most Powerful Female Engineers”[19] and PaymentsSource’s list of “The Most Influential Women in Payments”,[20] and is a member of the Committee of 100.[21]

In August 2022, she published her first book “Take Back Your Power: 10 New Rules for Women at Work”.[8] Liu is a seed investor and advisor to startups.[22]

She stepped down as CEO of Ancestry in January 2025 following a diagnosis of breast cancer and to spend more time with her family.[4]

Following her departure from Ancestry, Liu founded the artificial intelligence startup Ember AI.[7] She has also spoken publicly about the role of artificial intelligence in the workplace, highlighting disparities in AI adoption between men and women.[7][23]

References

  1. ^ Ford, Brody; Chang, Emily (February 3, 2021). “Facebook Executive Deborah Liu Named CEO of Ancestry.com”. Bloomberg News.
  2. ^ “Our Team | Ancestry Corporate”. Ancestry.com. Retrieved February 7, 2025.
  3. ^ a b Intuit (July 20, 2017). “Intuit Appoints Deborah Liu to Board of Directors” (Press release) – via BusinessWire.
  4. ^ a b Yip, Randall (December 22, 2025). “Loss, racism, and cancer can’t stop CEO Deb Liu”. AsAmNews. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
  5. ^ “About Us – Board of Directors”. Women in Product. Archived from the original on July 10, 2019. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  6. ^ Stanton, Zack (April 22, 2020). “‘We wanted to be incredibly aggressive with this’“. Politico.
  7. ^ a b c Yip, Randall (February 9, 2026). “AI startup founder warns women are falling behind in AI race”. AsAmNews. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
  8. ^ a b c “Ancestry CEO: Being labeled ‘the other’ was my rocket fuel to succeed”. msnbc.com. August 12, 2022. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  9. ^ Connley, Courtney (January 5, 2024). “Why Ancestry CEO Deborah Liu Believes Rejection Can Be a Gift”. Chief. Retrieved March 31, 2024.
  10. ^ “Facebook Platform, 10 years later: VP Deb Liu on the social network’s expanding developer program”. geekwire.com. July 26, 2017. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  11. ^ Olsen, Parmy (January 29, 2018). “Meet The Woman Building Facebook’s eBay-Killer”. Forbes.
  12. ^ “Deborah Liu, director of product, Facebook platform at Facebook”. businessinsider.com. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  13. ^ Deb Liu (November 14, 2017). “‘Optimize for people and passion,’ says Facebook’s Deb Liu”. The Lily (Washington Post) (Interview). Interviewed by The Lily and OK Real.
  14. ^ Winn, Layne (October 15, 2019). “Founder of Facebook Marketplace Deb Liu shares how Sheryl Sandberg convinced her to join”. ABC News.
  15. ^ Lynley, Matthew (February 12, 2014). “Meet The Woman Behind One Of Facebook’s Fastest-Growing And Most Lucrative New Businesses”. BuzzFeed News.
  16. ^ Thau, Barbara (December 27, 2018). “Facebook ‘Marketplace’ Executive Reveals Key Retail Trends For 2019”. Forbes.
  17. ^ “Facebook’s Eddie O’Neil takes over Platform as Deb Liu grows Marketplace”. techcrunch.com. September 13, 2017. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  18. ^ “Ancestry.com Taps Facebook Executive for CEO Role”. Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute. February 4, 2021.
  19. ^ Bort, Julie; Sandler, Rachel (June 21, 2018). “The 39 Most Powerful Female Engineers of 2018”. Business Insider.
  20. ^ “Deb Liu”. wsj.com. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  21. ^ “Members – Committee of 100 – Deborah Liu”. Committee of 100. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  22. ^ “How This Tech Leader Found Her Voice and Took the Reins of a Major Company”. entrepreneur.com. August 19, 2022. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  23. ^ Kaplan, Ben (February 9, 2026). “AI Startup Founder Warns Women Falling Behind in AI Race”. National Today. Retrieved March 30, 2026.