Shivon Zilis
Born
Shivon Alice Zilis[1]

(1986-02-08) February 8, 1986 (age 37)
Markham, Ontario, Canada
EducationYale University (BA)
Children2

Shivon Alice Zilis (born February 8, 1986) is a Canadian technology executive and venture capitalist.

Early life and education

Shivon Alice Zilis was born in Markham, Ontario, Canada on 8 February 1986 to Sharda, a Punjabi Indian, and Richard, a Jewish Canadian.[2] Zilis graduated from Markham's Unionville High School.[3] She attended Yale University, graduating in 2008 with degrees in economics and philosophy. She played on Yale's ice hockey team as a goaltender, and is the school's all-time leader in goals-against average.[4]

Career

After graduating from Yale, Zilis started her career at IBM in New York, working in financial technologies in developing countries, especially Peru and Indonesia.[3] From 2012 to 2018, she was one of the founding investors and partner of Bloomberg Beta, funded by Bloomberg L.P., utilizing what she calls "machine intelligence".[5]

She was named among LinkedIn's 35 Under 35.[6] In 2015, Zilis was listed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list of venture capitalists.[7] Zilis serves as director of operations and special projects at Neuralink and reports directly to Elon Musk.[8] Zilis met Musk through her non-profit work at OpenAI, of which she was a board member until 2023.[9][10] From 2017 to 2019, she served as a project director for Tesla, Inc.'s Autopilot product and chip design team.[11]

Personal life

In July 2022, it was revealed through the obtaining of Travis County, Texas court documents that Zilis had twins with Elon Musk who were born in November 2021. Executives claimed that they were born via in vitro fertilization (IVF).[12][13] She stated in 2020 that Musk is the person she admires most, despite criticism toward him.[11] According to court documents to register the twins' names, Musk and Zilis listed the same address in Austin.[14] In September 2023 Musk's biographer Walter Isaacson confirmed names, a son named Strider and a daughter named Azure.[15][16]

References

  1. ^ Marcus, Josh (6 July 2022). "Elon Musk secretly fathered twins with Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis: report". Finance.yahoo.com – via The Independent.
  2. ^ Sathian, Sanjena (29 May 2015). "Shivon Zilis, nerd-athlete investor". USA Today – via OZY.
  3. ^ a b Tedesco, Theresa (11 February 2015). "Hockey skills helped Canadian stickhandle on to Forbes Top 30 young investors list". Financial Post.
  4. ^ "Yale goalie earns honour for academic skills". YorkRegion.com. 19 March 2008.
  5. ^ "The Current State of Machine Intelligence". Bloomberg. 11 December 2014.
  6. ^ Paul, Kari (6 July 2022). "Elon Musk fathered twins with one of his executives last year – report". The Guardian.
  7. ^ "2015 30 Under 30: Venture Capital". Forbes. 5 January 2015.
  8. ^ "Elon Musk has new twins with Neuralink exec". TechCrunch. 6 July 2022. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  9. ^ Peterson, Becky (23 March 2023). "Shivon Zilis, Musk Associate, Leaves OpenAI Board". The Information.
  10. ^ Loizos, Connie (6 July 2022). "Things get messy for Elon Musk with report about new twins he shares with Neuralink exec". TechCrunch.
  11. ^ a b Safronova, Valeriya (7 July 2022). "How Many Children Does Elon Musk Have?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  12. ^ "Elon Musk and Neuralink exec had twins via IVF, no romance: Report". Business Insider.
  13. ^ Lerman, Rachel. "Shivon Zilis, who reportedly had twins with Elon Musk, is an AI expert". The Washington Post.
  14. ^ Black, Julia (6 July 2022). "Elon Musk had twins last year with one of his top executives". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 7 July 2022. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  15. ^ "Elon Musk reveals names of his twins with Shivon Zilis". Independent.
  16. ^ "Inside Elon Musk's Struggle for the Future of AI". Time Magazine.
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